Marauder Rangers
by texaswookie
Summary: The Potters are alive, but divorced Dumbledore believes the wrong child prophesized, and the Marauders refused favortisim and took their charge to Tx and joined the TX Rangers. Not a crossover with Walker.
1. Chapter 1

Shock and astonishment I don't any of the characters in this story. Do I really need to place a disclaimer every time now after this?

* * *

Albus Dumbledore sighed as he looked on at the three friends whose friendship had become legendary during their time at Hogwarts. The war with Voldemort had strained the great friendship, and one that should have been sitting there with them was currently at an unknown location to the group. Particularly since he didn't think that he could trust any of them not to do something extremely stupid in the name of revenge. The old Headmaster peered over his half moon spectacles and studied the three men that were before him speculatively. The leader of the group James Potter, former Head Boy of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, an experienced Auror who had graduated top in his class, and a young man who had a mastery in transfiguration and was the father to Violet Potter the Girl-Who-Lived. Quiet a list of accomplishments for one as young as James was, at least he was young as far as wizards were concerned. The young man had wild black untamed hair that always looked windswept and a pair of round glasses that covered his brown eyes, which as always twinkled with a joke that only James seemed to know. On either side he had a friend that stood there in support of him. Sirus Black stood on one side, a young man who had long ago forgone his family's Pureblood beliefs despite the fact that he came from one of Voldemorts greatest supporters ever. The Black family had all been among Voldemorts greatest supporters except for the young man before him. Sirus was dressed in muggle biker clothes that he had been wearing since he had graduated which consisted of a beaten leather jacket over a t-shirt, and a pair of weatherworn jeans. The young man had black hair as dark as his name and ice blue eyes that could be as cold as the artic to his enemies and as warm and comforting as Phoenix fire to those that he counted as his friends, his eyes sparkled with mirth even greater than James did at times. Last, but not least of the three friends was Remus Lupin the werewolf of the group. Remus was a quiet man of great intelligence, who despite all of the obstacles that had been placed in front of him he had managed to persevere and come out relatively on top. Remus had sandy brown hair with a few streaks of gray that the stress of his transformations had given him. Remus wore robes that looked a bit beaten up, but were nowhere near as ragged as a number of werewolves clothing was. Remus eyes were a strong pale blue with a hint of amber in them, they were normally serious and cool eyes, but once the other two young men got started they often got their friend going into whatever insane plan that the three of them had come up with and then those eyes were sparkling with a mischievous glint of a hunter. It was truly amazing that this group had come together as it had. James Potter was a member of one of the better-known Light families that had long been supportive of doing the right thing. Then there was Sirus Black whose family's reputation was enough to make some being to stop and think before they crossed him. Finally there was Remus Lupin who was considered a Dark Creature to most of the world, and could easily have gone that way but had instead stayed true to the light like the other members of the Lupin family had when the family of the Moon had been given the choice, the family of the shadows was always one that one could never be completely sure about at times. Together these three men, no these three joksters, these three Marauders had given the Death Eaters something to fear during the war. While a large part of them were lighthearted and friendly another part of them was as strong and ruthless as any Death Eater had been.

Dumbledore sighed, as he looked the three men one more time before he finally began to talk to them with a tired air focusing all of his attention on the unofficial leader of the group. "James, really I know things are not going quiet the way you thought they would but really don't you think running from your problems is a rather bit extreme?"

"Hardly running away professor." James informed the older man with a weary grin. "I'm merely doing what Lily wants, the fact that it will be the best for the both of us is just the icing on the cake. She and I no longer really care for each other like we used to."

"And what of your child James? Are you thinking of your child while you are thinking of doing this?" Dumbledore asked his former student.

"Yes I am." James said stiffly. "I am thinking of Harry a lot these days. I can't allow him to grow up in a world where he is ignored simply because he doesn't have some sort of crazy prophecy hanging over his head to match the scar he got in an attack by Voldemort."

Dumbledore sighed at the reminder of the other Potter child that almost no one but these three even thought of. Harry Potter, the twin brother of the girl-who-lived and a likely candidate for going dark despite all of the efforts that James and his friends were likely to make as far as he was concerned about the child. It was a magical law as old if not older as the lore of wands. If there was one being of great power there was always one to oppose it and he didn't think that Violet should have to deal with more than one beomg of power in her life and he knew that the boy was going to be just as if not more powerful as Violet and that was something that could not be allowed to happen.

"Look Professor, we all know that you think that Violet is the best thing since the discovery of the lemon drop." James said to the man with a crooked grin. "I also understand what you think we ought to be doing when it comes to the two of them. But I just can't do something like that. I can't ignore my son like you think I can. Lily's and my parents didn't die just so that we could ignore one of the reasons that they died."

"But did they die so that you could ignore the child that they died for?" Dumbledore asked with a twinkle in his eyes, obviously thinking that he had his former student caught within his own words.

"Are you saying that they knew which child was probably the prophecy child beforehand Dumbledore?" James asked with a knowing smile. The Potters, Marauders and Snape all knew of a prophecy, but none of them knew the precise wording of the prophecy. "I really doubt that Headmaster, personally I think that they died for both of them in which case it could be that it required both of them to do whatever it is that was needed to stop Voldemort's curse. Of course, it could also have been the fact that our parents softened him up enough for the kids to do their thing." James smirked at this as he recalled what had been left of the Dark Wizard. Lily's parents had used muggle weapons against Voldemort. Their fathers had met the monster in the entryway. His dad had used what looked like reductor and bludgeoning curses while Mr. Evans had used an elephant rifle that had been in the Evans family for years against Voldemort. The Dark Wizard obviously hadn't been able to deflect both of the attacks as had been obvious by the arm that had been found. The Marauders had found it amusing that it had been a muggle device that had hurt the Pureblood biogot so much. Despite his injuries Voldemort had still killed the two men though. Mrs. Evans had died next when she had leaped at Voldemort with a meat cleaver. The woman had cut into his shoulder but that was all. The last to fall had been Mrs. Potter who had transfigured a number of things into red hot pokers before sending them flying at Voldemort hitting him at least three times. The Dark Wizard had then banished the pokers right back at the old witch who had died impaled on her own weapons as they burned through her lungs.

"Never did realize my mum could be so vicious in her attacks."

"James old buddy; that was why none of us ever tried to cross or prank her." Sirus told his best friend. "None of us wanted to get on her bad side no matter what."

"True." Remus said nodding sagely in agreement as he remembered the Potter Matriarch.

"No James, the prophecy clearly stated that it h to be one child not two." Dumbledore said not about to be distracted by the conversation.

"If you say so. James said shrugging unconcerned about such things now. "Not that I would really want you to go about like Harry's a celebrity anyways, after a while it would have gotten annoying. Now I've explained what it is that I really need, will you be there?"

Dumbledore sagged in his seat at the direct question, he had hoped that James would storm off or become to annoyed to focus on what they had been talking about. "So you will leave your child here?" He asked his former pupil curiously.

James nodded reluctantly. "Violet doesn't seem to need me for things right now." The man said with a hollow sound in his voice.

"But she still needs her father figure."

"Yeah, well Snivelus seems to be doing that job for him pretty well as it is." Sirus told the older man.

Dumbledore frowned at this remark. "Sirus, must you insist on using those names?"

"He'll always be a sniveling coward as far as we are concerned professor." James told the man stonily.

"So, now you intend to blame Serverus for the loss of your family? The man risked quiet a bit doing what he did."

James shook his head in disagreement. "The man has never earned our respect headmaster, besides he only turned when he heard of the prophecy and he called Lily away the night of that attack. If I had not trusted in him being alone with Lily I probably would be dead as well right now. The greasy git really knows how to repay a life debt doesn't he?" The dark-haired man snarked at the headmaster.

"So you will blame him for things he did as a young and foolish person then."

"He made his choice headmaster, do you really think that he never tortured or killed anyone before he was asked to help sell Lily and James out?" Remus asked the headmaster. "Warning you that Voldemort knew the prophecy was really the only bit of good he did for the war."

"Will you do what I asked?" James asked the man before them before he jumped to the defense of his Potions Master.

Dumbledore finally nodded in agreement, he would do what was being asked of him no matter how much he disliked the job.

"Good." James said as he got up.

"Just one question James, where will you go? Dumbledore asked his former student and his friends. "After all it would be nice to know where you are when it is time to send you Harry his letter. After all if your little theory is correct it would be a good idea for Harry to come to Hogwarts, and if your wrong perhaps there can be those that can watch out for Harry and make sure that he doesn't make that many mistakes that he may regret later on in his life that could change him in ways that even we may not be able to completely understand. Severus would probably be a great person to understand that sort of thing since he to has been where the boy will one day be."

Remus answered before James or Sirus made some remark about having to be in school with the Girl-Who-Lived, having Snape mentor Harry, or the fact that Dumbledore thought that he should be allowed to watch Harry as a potential dark wizard. "Well sir, I actually got a job offer and after we did some looking into it from what we could we think that there's a chance that James and Sirus could get jobs there as well we'll just have to wait and see about that though won't we."

"And if these job offers fail?" Dumbledore asked them.

"Then we'll worry about it then." Sirus said shrugging his shoulders. "Though I do have a few ideas and since I'm the new Head of the House of Black I happen to have quiet a bit a money at my disposal."

Dumbledore frowned at this. "Careful with that money Sirus, it could easily corrupt you." Sirus mother had died a few weeks after the war, she had reluctantly accepted the war 'hero' back into the family restoring him to the familial lines and all of the rights that came with it. After all Sirus was now the only member of the family who was currently the only member of the family that was currently able to take the Head of Family without suspicion. The woman and Sirus had tolerated each other for the past few weeks keeping their views on the war to themselves and trying to talk about anything else which had usually ended up with them discussing spell theory their disagreements with Dumbledore and how some of the Purebloods were. When the woman had finally died the Marauders had gone to the funeral as was expected of them before they then had started finishing up on things that led them to this point. The rift that had been between them had not healed, but it had gotten to the point where the two could have accepted that they were different people with different views on the way the world should be. And the late Lady Black had accepted her son for being able to stand for his beliefs.

The Marauders nodded at the warning before they turned and strode out of the office they had a couple of things to take of before they left the castle. The three Marauders made their way down the stairs and passed by Frank and Alice Longbottom. The two of them were the Ministry's golden couple, that had brought down a number of Dark Wizards and had even publicly renounced Voldemort during the height of his power making them a well-known pair. The unknown part about the pair was that a number of their 'arrests' were actually the result of firefights with the Order of the Phoenix, a group whose primary goal had been to battle against the Dark Lord and his own followers the Death Eaters. The Longbottom duo currently had the reputation as having the combined magical power of Dumbledore now, the fact that a quarter of their supposed arrests were actually the result of what the Marauders had done when they had ignored Dumbledore and gone into fire fights to deal with the various Death Eaters was something that had to be kept quiet. The only problem for former Auror trainees Potter and Black was that they could never tell the truth unless they wanted to worry about losing their hard earned Auror badges for being part of a vigilante group for their activities. The problem that the husband and wife team had with them was that the Marauders didn't give them the respect that most other people gave them since they knew the truth and had not been impressed by the two. The witch and wizard had somehow started believing in the hype that had been built about them over the past year. The last bit of respect the two had for the group of younger wizards had been broken when James and Lily's relationship had started going down the tubes and Dumbledore had no longer worried about reigning the two in. The Longbottoms sneered at them, and Sirus had to be held back from doing anything by his friends as the two passed by them.

"Come on guys let me at them." Sirus said scowling at the backs of the two arrogant Aurors. "I'll show those two pretenders what a real duel is."

"Enough Padfoot. They're not worth the effort" James said forcefully. "Lets just get the last bit of business done, and then we can be out of here." Sirus nodded reluctantly his eyes boring holes into the backs of the Longbottoms and finally relaxed his body. His friends used to their impulsive friend bolting the moment he was released didn't let him go until after they were downstairs and the stone gargoyle that guarded the entrance had moved back into place blocking the way up to the office.

"I could of taken them Prongs." Sirus whined to his friend as they made their way down the hallway. "Besides what are they doing here anyways?"

"Does it really matter? In a couple of days it won't even matter to us what they're doing." Remus said logically to his friend.

"That's besides the point though Mooney."

"Not really, but come on, we have other things that we have to worry about than that all right." James said as they finally began making their way down the familiar long winding steps that led to the dungeon classrooms. Sirus paused a few times here and there to place Gryffindor pennants chewing on snakes with one of his most powerful permanent sticking Charms, which were something that everyone in his family were well known for.

"Padfoot come on." James said coolly as they finally reached the door to the potions room. The group's smiles failed and became grim lines and the twinkles in their eyes died and became as hard as ice and stone as they passed through the doorway. James eyes scanned the room quickly and a frown marred his normally handsome features as he saw that Lily had left Harry on a blanket on the stone floor while she held Violet and off to the side was Severus Snape the Marauders old school rival who had never really rated as high on the threat level as he liked to think that he did. The only thing that bothered them about the man had been his obsession with Lily and his love of the Dark Arts. The three ignored the man as much as possible, though Snape and Sirus both had their wands out and pointed down toward the ground but ready to whip them up should they need to. The two Potion enthusiasts were laying down the papers that they had been grading and watched the Marauders curiously.

"Remus, get Harry." James ordered his friend as he watched the Potion Master and Mistress.

"James." Lily said curtly, though she was slightly red in the cheeks over leaving Harry on the floor like she had. Whether that was because she had done it or been caught at it James really didn't want to know, though he suspected the answer.

"Lily." James said nodding towards the woman. "As much as I would love to trade insults with you and Snivelus over here, I do have other better things to do with my time." James reached into an inner pocket in his jacket and withdrew a roll of parchment ignoring the scowls that were now being directed at him. "This here is the last bit of the legal stuff that we have to deal with and then our divorce will be finalized." James said, as he shoved the parchment across the desk.

Lily flicked her wand at the parchment scanning it for anything unexpected, but only found the basic binding spells that were supposed to be on a legal parchment. She scanned the parchment then with her eyes and saw that the paper was mostly in her favor as far as she was concerned. "Severus, do you want to look at this?" She asked her close friend.

"Watch Black." Snape said to his friend. "I wouldn't put it past him to try and do something while my back is turned." The Potion Master said sneering at the Pureblood.

Sirus let out a barking laugh at this. "Says the little greasy snake who thought that it was a good idea to listen at a doorway. Tell me what did Voldemort pay you for spying on the Headmaster anyways? Sides I've learned a bit about honor since our days as students." Sirus said. "It was one of the few things that Mr. and Mrs. Potter drilled into our heads during our 6th and 7th years."

"Oh yes the honorable Marauders had to be taught how to behave by the mommy and daddy of their leader." Snape sneered.

"What can I say." Sirus said to him, "We had a great example on backstabbing before they started teaching us." Sirus said sneering right back at the other man.

"Enough!" James and Lily ordered the two.

"Lets not start that argument again Padfoot." James told his best friend. "We don't need to get all of that dragged back out again."

As much as I hate to admit it Potter is right Severus, just ignore Black for a little bit longer and then he'll be out of our hair."

The two men nodded and each took a step back in a mutual sign of withdrawing. Snape accepted the legal parchment and nodded in agreement. "This looks appropriate particularly the part about guardianship. It would probably be a good idea to sign this before Potter realizes that he made a mistake by giving you full guardianship of the only worthwhile child of the group."

"Don't think that will happen unless you two screw up raising her." James said, he then turned to the fireplace in the room and eyed Severus questioning. "Can I call Dumbledore here so that he can place the Wizengott seal on it making it complete and legal?"

Snape arched an eyebrow at this and replied in a mocking voice. "The high and mighty James Potter actually knows how to ask?"

"Is that a yes or a no?" James asked, ignoring his former rival's tone he refused to rise to the man's bait.

"Oh but of course." Snape said and bowed out of the way so that James could reach the floo powder.

James nodded. "Headmaster's office!" He said, and a moment later Dumbledore's face appeared in the flames. "Its time professor." James said, and then stepped back letting the older man enter the room and examine a group of his former students that were now divided into two groups that were even wider stetched out than when they were teenagers.

Dumbledore sighed and looked at the two people this decision rested on. "Well then, is there any chance whatsoever that the two of you can be convinced to stop this before it becomes to late to go back?" The two shook their heads. Dumbledore nodded at them in grim acceptance. "Very well then, apply your magical signatures then." The two nodded and waved their wands towards the parchment, which glowed as their names were placed on it before rolling itself up and disappearing with a crack. "It is done then." Dumbldore said tiredly, wondering how he was going to do damage control for this problem. Perhaps he should have done a memory charm like he had been tempted to at the beginning it was to late now though.

"Good," James said gruffly, "if you'll excuse us we have to leave now though." The Marauders nodded toward the headmaster and one by one they kissed Violet Potter goodbye. The girl gurgled at them, and James was heartbroken as he kissed her goodbye before turning away from the girl and taking Harry into his arms. He turned back toward Lily and offered Harry to her. "Kiss him goodbye Lil's, it may be the last time you see him for a long time." Lily nodded, and then lightly gave the boy a peck on the cheek brushing some of his hair out of the way revealing a scar that he had gotten on the night of the attack. Dumbledore looked up at the scar for the first time, and wondered if he had chosen the right child as he then looked at Violet who had a serpentine looking S scar that was in the same shape as the Slytherian crest was. It was an understandable mark for the Heir of Slytherian to give to his target. Still though, there was something about that lighting bolt mark that the boy had that just screamed power, but he was unsure exactly what it might mean.

The Marauders stopped by Filches office, and with a wave of his wand Sirus caught the Marauders Map as it came flying out of its hiding place within one of Filches cabinets. The three of them headed for the main doors and saw that they had a group-waiting there to see them off. First there was Peeves who floated alongside nearly headless Nick, beside them was Hagrid Master of the Keys and groundskeeper of Hogwarts, their former head of house and Transfiguration teacher Professor McGonagall and finally Professor Flitwick their Charms teacher a former dueling champion and half dwarf.

"Ah always thought that you an Lily would be forever." Hagrid said, sniffing a bit as he patted James on the shoulder.

"I guess it just wasn't meant to be." James said passing Harry off to Remus who was saying goodbye to their professors. Sirus was talking to Peeves about some pranks to pull and speaking a bit to Headless Nick. The Marauders almost felt embarrassed that they were the ones that started referring to the ghost as nearly headless since he was seeing them off now. The group all turned to Flitwick who was one of their greatest friends since school had ended for them.

"I shall miss our conversations." Flitwick said sighing as he looked at the group of friends. "I have met many Charms prodigies in my lifetime, but never had I met group that used charms quiet the way that you three did. In fact, you put many a Charms prodigy to shame with the way you three were willing to look outside the box in the use of charms."

"That's us, the out of the box thinking group." Sirus said with false modesty.

James then turned to McGonagall. "Be careful out there James, the world can be big place without having the right kind of help." The woman said to one of her favorite students. "And I fear that Dmbledore may favor Lily in just about everything that happens from now on."

"Don't worry so much professor we don't plan on living in England anyways." James said flashing a grin at his teacher.

"Well then good luck. Once you do get settled in call me and we'll see what can be done for a housewarming gift from us."

"We'll see professor." James said grabbing the woman's hand and kissing it. "We must be off now, we still have littleto do and much time to do it." He flashed a grin at her. "Strike that and reverse it of course." The stern woman nodded and let her student's hand go.

The three friends waved once again before heading towards the gates. As they left they were unaware of the various people watching them. Dumbledore watched them with a curious gaze from his office wondering what the future would bring them all. Lily watched them from atop the astronomy tower with a mixture of sadness and relief that that part of her life was over. She would miss some of the things that were James, but there others that she would not miss at all. Severus Snape watched with a gloating air of someone who had won, as he watched Potter leave the castle while he was still here with Lily now at his side just as he knew that she should be. He had finally beaten Potter, and he was going to be able to enjoy the rewards that came with that victory the man thought to himself smugly.

* * *

The Marauders apparated to the flat that they had been sharing for the past few weeks grabbing everything that they thought that they might need before disappearing again to the airport. The three of them would have to fly due to how young Harry was and they couldn't leave the boy on his own to fly the long distance on his own. The three men and the child finally left the plane a day and a half later rubbing sore muscles that ached from having to sit within the confines of the uncomfortable plane seats. "So how are we going to know who our ride is?" Sirus asked, the letter that Remus had got had promised him transportation for the four of them.

"Something tells me it won't be that hard." James said, pointing to a man holding a sign.

**Lupin or Three men and a baby.**

"Someone here has a decent sense of humor at least." Sirus said with a chuckle as they headed toward the man.

"Mr. Lupin?" The man asked hopefully, as they stepped up to him.

"Right here." Sirus said clapping his friend on the back with pride.

"Hello, how are ya doing." The man said, offering his hand the British born wizards. "I'm Paul Martinez." Remus was startled since he knew that the people that wanted to hire him had complete knowledge of just what exactly he was, yet here was a man offering him a hand of greeting as if he wasn't some sort of monster or other sort of dark creature. The man was obviously oblivious; Remus thought to himself, either that or he was a very good actor.

"I'm Texas Ranger Jackson." The man said as he finished greeting the other two. "I have a portkey to get us to H.Q where you'll have a few minutes to freshen up and then your interview will start however due to the kid we'll have to take the stage instead." The Ranger led the three men and their young charge outside raising his wand there was a large bang and the group all turned as a coach drawn by six black horses appeared.

"Nice" Sirus and James said with a nod of approval.

"What kind of horses are those?"

"Yeah the Stage here has been drawn by Widow Maker's for quiet some time now."

"Widow Maker's?"

"Yeah Widow Makers, they're native critters to Texas just like the Jackolope is." The man said as the door swung open and a man stepped out.

"You hollered?"

"Yeah take us to the Texas Rangers headquarters we have a meeting there."

"Yes sir." The man said as they all climbed on and took off. The three men were reminded of the Knight bus as the Stage took off and couldn't help but wonder which one of them would win in a race. The five of them were deposited in front of a building and were escorted in by their guide to a room off to the side. "Just wait here and get yourselves together, then we can get this show on the road all right folks? And because we're kind of rushing ya we even managed to get someone to watch the little one for ya."

"Really?" Remus said. "And just who might that be? You have to understand that we're a little bit picky about who watches Harry."

"Not a problem Mr. Lupin." The man said as a door opened and they saw an attractive young brunette woman with blue eyes, she was little shorter than Remus who was the shortest of the three of them and wore a pair of tight jeans that left little imagination for the three friends and a button up western shirt though they could all see the t-shirt she wore under it. "Boys meet Amy Sheppard, she's the best child care giver that we got in here, she's also a deadly shot so no trying anything unless you want to chance being humiliated."

"I don't know about that." Amy said with a low southern drawl. "The two dark haired ones are kind of cute so I might at least give them a chance."

"Even if they ain't Texans? I thought you said that your daddy would transfigure the first non Texas boy you tried to date into a deer and mount his head on the wall."

"Would you be quiet?" Amy growled at the other Ranger. "Besides, they're smart enough to come and look for work here, so there is at least some hope for them." Amy said with a smirk. "Besides I haven't had my dad shoot at any of my boyfriends in a while."

"Really? That's not what I heard." The young man returned with a smile. "Last I heard David was still not returning any of your calls."

Amy scowled at him. "There's a reason I am considered a dangerous shot and you are coming dangerously close into getting a refresher course as to why I am not someone you want to get on the bad side of Paul."

"All right geeze." The Ranger said holding his hands up in surrender. "Some people just can't take a joke at all." He grumbled as he back away from the woman.

"Come here little guy, let your dad get a chance to freshen up." Amy said ignoring her fellow ranger. James passed his son over and then the three Brits changed into their robes and then followed after the Ranger the three were lead into a room where three people were sitting in a half circle. They looked up at the group of men nervously.

"Sirs, "Paul said in surprise before snapping off a hasty salute at them. "I didn't realize that you would be running this interview sirs."

"No reason you should have Paul, we wanted it kept a secret. Now continue."

"Yes sir." The man said a little flustered now. "Um Mr. Lupin, Mr. Potter and Mr. Black. May I introduce you to the directors of the Texas Rangers." The Marauders swallowed nervously, but were able to paste weak grins on their face. "Director Marshall is in charge of the wizard side of things." He said nodding to an older man with shoulders almost as wide as Hagrids, the man stood up and shook hands, and the Marauders couldn't help but notice how the older man easily towered over them at nearly seven feet. The man wore jeans cowboy boots a white button up shirt with a bolo on it a gray Stetson was sitting on the floor next to his chair. "Over here is Chief Black Bear." Paul continued pointing to the next member of the group. "He runs the Shaman side of the department, since we have more than one kind of magic user out here in Texas." The Marauders nodded to the man who was wearing jeans a red button up and laced up moccasins and a brown leather jacket with fringe and beadwork on it. "And finally we have the director of the Non magical side of the Texas Rangers. Director Roy Gomez the 4th." The last member of the Rangers was a little shorter than your average man, but was of a stocky build and had pepper gray hair and instead of a cowboy hat he was wearing a ball cap and sunglasses that covered his eyes.

"A pleasure." The Marauders said simultaneously, not even noticing that they were talking as one. "We're here about the job openings."

"Yes we know." Marshall said, as he looked the three of them over. "You understand we don't just hire someone off the street not even wizards with celebrity connections."

"Which is why we're here sir." James said stiffly. "Here we have a chance of being hired without the safety net that we might have gotten from getting a job back at home. Only pureblood Hogwarts graduates get the really good jobs back home anymore."

"Something you boys happen to be." Marshall said to him.

"Yes sir, but there's that and the fact that it was time for us to move on. There were things going on that were bothering us about the way things were going, but no one wanted to listen to us."

"Very well Potter, as long as you understand that you'll have to work for anything you get here."

James smiled at this. "That's all I want sir, besides I can already out duel at least 10 percent of the Aurors in England and Scotland and I'm only a graduate."

"Will your family be joining you?"

James smiled died at this. "I'm divorced sir, all I have is my son now."

Marshall winced at the defeated voice the younger man had as he said this, he also noticed the strained smiles that the other two had and that they were both a bit protective of their friend over what had just been told to him. It was an interesting thing to note for the future if they did hire the group. "That bad eh son?"

"Yes sir."

"Understood, I'll try not to bring it up again."

"Thanks."

"Lets see you did manage to graduate as one of the top in your class at the Auror Academy, you also have an Hogwarts Mastery in DADA, Care of Magical Creatures and Transfiguration magic's, but are only a basic potion maker."

"Yes sir."

"Next of course is Mr. Black; scored about the same as you did Potter at the Auror Academy. Lets see Black, you have a Masters in DADA, COMC except that he has a Masters in Charms instead of Transfiguration, and are a fair hand at potion making." Gomez said as he was looking over some of the files. "Don't worry I'm a squib boys, I can look at these all I want, and besides the Director of the Texas Rangers has always either been a squib or had a squib liason that he could send to meetings."

"Yes sir."

"And finally there is the man that we really wanted as a part of our force, Mr. Remus Lupin. A Hogwarts master in Defense, fourth in your year according to this, and you were also granted a Hogwarts Masters in Charms, COMC, Runes and Arithmancy." Black Bear said as he looked at the last of the files.

"He's also knowledgeable in all of the books the Aurors had us use." Sirus added in for his friend.

"And he has a theory knowledge better than most people do about the various curses of the European magical world." James piped in.

"I see." The Shaman said as he made some additions to the parchment in front of him. "Of course all of your Masters are only part of the reasons why we wanted you to join us here."

"Really what is the other reason?" Remus asked, wondering what it could be that he could offer to this organization that was supposed to be one of the best law enforcements in both the magical and muggle world.

"Why your Lunar life of course." The Shaman told the werewolf. The three men stiffened, and found their hands clenched ready to fight their way out if nessasary. "Easy there gentlemen, having a curse is not the crime it is in your country."

"How so?" James asked, his thoughts going to Harry and whether he was alright.

"Well for starters we won't ban a person for a job because of their condition."

"And to be honest, it is because of your condition that we want you as a part of our force here."

"Why? Being a werewolf doesn't give me any great enhancements. Sure I can smell and hear a bit better, but not that much better."

"You forgot the love for rare meat." Sirus jibed.

Marshall looked at the werewolf with a penetrating gaze that left the man uncomfortable. "Because you have proven which side you're on during your country's war, and you have knowledge about a number of dark creatures and what not. Then there are the experiments that we would like you to help us out with."

"Experiments?" Sirus asked memories of what his family did to so called dark creatures as 'experiments'. None of the Marauders particularly liked the sound of the word. "Maybe we should leave." Remus said.

"Perhaps it would be better if I were to explain." Black Bear said. "Remus Lupin, my people have studied the Loup Garrou for many centuries and recently we have come across old writings of some of the old ones."

"Loup Garrou?" James asked knowing he should know that name.

"The ancestors of werewolves, they were supposed to be able to change at will." Remus told his friend. "We read up about them when we passed through Romania remember?"

"Oh yeah." James said slightly chagrined at this.

"Yes, and they were also a type of werewolf that once were as numerous as the vampires of today are they had their own societies and towns even."

"So what happened to them?"

"No one really knows, they just kind of died out as far as people can tell."

"So the History books that most have say. From our readings from the old scrolls we have been able to determine that some of the Holy Orders of that time like the Crusaders and the Vatican hunted the Loup Garrou down and killed them, and those that they did not kill they cursed into being what they are today."

"A nice piece of history I'm sure but what has that got to do with me?"

"Simple, along with the scrolls there was a way to fight the curse written in as well. Its not quiet a counter curse since it takes effort by the infected they have to learn how to connect with their wolf to a certain extent before they can learn how to control themselves."

"So, I let you help me find a possible cure, and you'll let us in with a job in law enforcement?"

"Yes, but you still have to wait and serve on other Texas law forces before we let you join the Texas Rangers. We can't just make exceptions to all of our rules no matter how much help that you'll be." Marshall told the man.

"Yes, and connecting with your wolf is not an easy task it is something we are still working on ourselves hopefully with your help and perspective we will be able to find another clue."

"Control? How much control are we talking about exactly?" James asked the man.

"Enough that he can tell the difference between friend and foe. According to the old scrolls there is a mention of joining with the pack for control before all of the Loup Garrou became feral. We have tried to figure out what that meant by using groups of werewolves and we have tried regular wolves with a pack of wolves. Both attempts were useless and the werewolves nearly killed each other, and the wolf pack mauled the werewolf before he killed them all."

Hmm. Sirus said as he listened before a gleam came into his eyes. "Mr. Padfoot requests that Mr. Mooney and Mr. Prongs consider telling one of our biggest secrets."

James nodded. Mr. Prongs is agreeable besides our way does seem to work.

Remus smiled at his friends rolling his eyes for a moment before he joined the two in conversation. "Mr. Mooney would be most grateful, but thinks that the choice should be up to Mr. Prongs and Mr. Padfoot as it will be them exposed."

"What are you three doing?" Marshall asked curiously.

"Quiet my friend there is great power at work here." The Shaman said with interest as he leaned forward to watch the three young men.

"They better hurry it up." Gomez growled in annoyance as he watched the three Brits.

After a few more minutes of talking the Marauders turned to face the men. James Potter as the group leader stepped forward to address the men. The three leaders noticed that there was a swagger to James that hadn't been there a moment before and wondered what was going to happen now. "We are most sorry for the rudeness of what we did dear sirs, but it was a choice that we had to make. We believe sirs that we may just happen to have a way to assist you in your work, after all dear Mr. Mooney here already has some rough control of what his little furry alter ego can do."

"What? Are you saying you have learned the secret?"

"Yes sir I am. Mr. Padfoot if you would please be so kind."

"Of course Mr. Prongs." Sirus said and gave a sarcastic bow and then changed into a giant black dog that reminded everyone of a Grim.

"An Anamangis." Marshall said with respect, the particular skill was considered an extremely dangerous bit of magic but it was a lot easier than most people realized.

"Yes sirs, as you are no doubt aware sirs, the transformation that makes this happen is unique in the art of transfiguration in the fact that there is still the essence of a person within the new form despite the fact that the form is not my friend's original form, therefore what little mind my friend does have is in fact that of Sirus Black." Sirus was currently walking up and down for the men who were observing him while James gave them his lecture. "Now then, how does this help with what we were talking about you ask? Well let us tell you sirs. As you know, a werewolf cannot infect an animal, which is undoubtedly why you had a wolf pack. However, if you transfigured a person into a wolf or other non magical creature they would still be wolves and unable to help with your problem, and yet with the Animangus transformation it is possible to have the both of two worlds since the transfigured being does not have the mindset of the creature that he changes into as he is a merged being of both but he is unable to be infected."

"Which means that when Mooney comes out to play so do his animal friends." Sirus said after he shot into the air back to his human self.

"And with friends I don't have to worry about as much, and the peace that I get from having my family with me allows me to gain a measure of control over my beast." Remus said finishing the speech off.

"Incredible when did you come up with this?"

"In our fourth year, but it took us till nearly the end of our fifth year before we actually managed to get it to work." James said with a grin.

"This kind of breakthrough could place us a couple of years ahead in our research." The Shaman said excitedly, already imagining what he might be able to accomplish with this information.

"So does your country know about this?"

"Ah no sir, we were kind of hoping you could arrange to have us have transformation permits or something now that we had to go and spill the beans to you."

"We'll do more than that." Marshall told them understanding that the men had risked a year in prison and a fine to show them what they had acomplished. "Choose where you want to live and I'll give you recommendations for the law, and I'll also put you down as part of the research team. You may have helped open a whole new way of helping the werewolves out that no one else has thought of, or if they have they never shared it with the rest of the world. I guess the pack question has been figured out as well Black Bear."

"Yes it has this is a great occasion. I can hardly wait until the three of you are eligible to join our ranks and help us out."

"Yeah, who knows, in a few years the schools here could be having Animangus classes because of what you and your friends have discovered and after the first teachers can be found for it, then the first werewolves will be allowed into the schools out here. You may have changed a part of the wizarding world and there is still much to do."

"Thank you sir." James said to them. "It was a group effort though." The three men shook hands with the older group elated at what they had done.

The three were led by Paul, back to the room where Harry was being kept and while Remus and Paul waited outside the other two men went to retrieve the boy. They had been waiting for nearly 10 minutes before they came inside to find that while James was taking his time checking Harry out Sirus was chatting up to an amused Amy. "Ahem. Really James, do you really think that Sirus needs that much help still?" He asked as he watched the group.

James chuckled weakly as he gathered Harry up and headed for the door, and an embarrassed Sirus tried to gather what little dignity he had left and headed after them flashing a smile at an amused Amy as they all left.

* * *

The group found a wizard motel that they could rest in for the night and talk about what they should do now. "Well?"

"I say we find a house already." Sirus said excitedly. "I think a ranch house or something would be best though."

"Why?"

"Well till you do get control your going to need someplace to wander around and all." The blue-eyed man said shrugging a bit as if it was obvious conclusion.

"True, and if we're out there we can also raise some animals." James said with a sparkle in his eyes.

"I should have known that the two of you had another plan up your wands." Remus said rolling his eyes. "How big of a pain is this project going to be?"

"Well we want at least one big animal type, and maybe some other smaller stuff. We were thinking of maybe something like Jackalopes, there is a high demand for that kind of food out here we were also thinking of raising magical horses you know that there are shows and stuff for that sort of thing."

"Fine after we have an idea of where we are going to live." Remus said sighing, knowing that his friends were intent on playing cowboy know that they were in Texas he just hoped it didn't blow up in there faces. "Looks like we are the only sane ones here Harry." He said to the dozing form in his arms. "It'll be up to us to keep them from acting up."

"Hey no turning him from the Marauder way Mooney." Sirus said, "or are you trying to insult us?"

"I doubt that it would affect either of you since the two of you both have heads harder than Gryffindors sword, and they're more hollow than the shrieking shack." They all shared a laugh at this as they began making their plans for the future.


	2. Chapter 2

All right just so there is no confusion in the future Harry was about two when the Marauders moved to TX meaning that the M have officially been Rangers for about a year now that were doing a time jump.

* * *

The Marauders sighed as they collapsed into their chairs in the living room. They were a different group of friends than the ones that had stood nervously before the directors of the Texas Rangers a few years ago. The three friends were now all decked out in Texas clothing of beaten and somewhat faded jeans and cowboy hats and boots of various types. James wore a dark red western style cut button up shirt that was half unbuttoned at the top to show a simple black shirt beneath. Remus on the other hand was wearing a white cowboy shirt, but unlike his friend had it all the way buttoned and wore a bolo with a wolf head on it. Sirus in contrast to his two friends was still wearing t-shirt and jeans; his old beaten often worn motorcycle jacket was hanging nearby with a Texas flag now sewn onto it. The three men all wore shiny belt buckles with a single large Lone Star and cowboy boots of various colors and dusters sat nearby where they had been tossed by the tired group.The group of friends had just gotten back from a raid where the criminals in question had been two groups one was a group of squibs and muggle born relatives the other had been wizards. The two groups had been smuggling people animals and weapons back and forth across the Texas border the Marauders had spent nearly three months tracking the group on and off in the small towns that the crooks had used as base of operations the group that they had hunted had started out in San Antonio and then moved on to a dozen different small towns like Post, Haskell, Childress, Munday and Tyler. Unfortunately the Rangers couldn't find out where the supplies were coming in from before they came to San Antonio they were having trouble picking up the trail for some reason hopefully they would be able to stop them and be able to raid some of the bigger depots since they had only been allowed to raid the smaller ones. Now if only they had known when they were going in for the raid that the place had been as highly defended as it was they had gotten a number of nasty curses thrown at them and the other local police. The Marauders had served their seven years in regular Texas law enforcement though, and had then moved onto becoming Texas Rangers. The friends had been counted among the ranks of Rangers for a whole year now and were considered one of the better upcoming groups. The trio had enjoyed the prestige and respect that had come from being counted as one of the Texas Rangers and while occasionally there would be someone who disliked them for their accents that showed their heritage they were given the respect for the most part that they had earned.

"So, how many more of those guys do you think we have to catch?" James asked tiredly.

"Oh come on Prongs, you know as well as we do that there are always more scumbags like that around for us to catch." Sirus said with a smile as he stretched himself out. "Besides, if there were less of them to catch we would be out of a job." He pointed out to his friend in a reasonable tone.

"True."

"Well, as much as I would love to sit here and try and act as if the world has died around me we do have something rather important thing to get to." Remus said as he reluctantly pulled himself off of his chair. The other two nodded and hauled themselves up and headed deeper into the ranch house until they came to a room that was decorated with a pair of crossed brooms each with small Texas flags on their ends and a picture of an El Chupacabra leaping over the brooms jaw wide open as if it was trying to suck the blood out of them. The men walked in and saw a boy sitting there reading out of a book.

"Hey kiddo!" Sirus said grinning as they entered.

"Padfoot!" The dark haired little boy said with a grin as he leaped at his godfather, after a quick hug he then moved onto the other members of the family of men after the small boy had assured himself that all three were in good condition he stepped back and looked at them curiously. "Did everything go all right?" He asked in the worried and serious tone of voice tinged with a small amount of fear that children with a parent in law enforcement had that knew that their parent was not an immortal. Harry had learned this lesson early on in his life, and had watched as each every one of the three men before him had been placed in the hospital at least once.

"All good Harry, and what's more we can head on out to six flags now." James said flashing the tickets that he had gotten for the amusement park to the birthday boy.

"Is Rachel going to able to come?" The boy asked curiously.

"You better believe she will cub." Sirus said with a grin, "she just had to finish up some paperwork and then she was going to meet us there. She's also going to be bring a couple of her friends along with her, or so she said." He added, waggling his eyebrows at James and Remus.

"Padfoot, not to his birthday please tell me you didn't." James pleaded.

"Oh come on, do you really think that I planned on this? Sirus asked his friend with a knowing smirk. "Its not my fault that you got yourself hooked up with a girl who wants to set us up as well, and there's not a whole lot more that I can do with it except live with it don't you know." He said good naturedly. It's a hard life but someone's got to do it though.

"And if it so happens that you happen to find a girl as rambunctious as you all the better am I right?"

"You know it Prongs."

The other two shook there heads at their friend as they gathered their hats and Ranger issued dusters. The group then went to the wizarding side of six flags and James met his long time girl friend of four years Rachel O'Hare with a hug and a kiss. The young woman was almost as tall James was had strawberry blonde hair and blue eyes that could go from friendly to artic in a matter of moments. Rachel, whom most considered just as scary if not more so than Amy was about a year and half younger than the Marauders. The marauders all nodded to the young woman and Sirus grinned wolfishly as he saw that Amy happened to be with her and on the other side of her was Samantha AKA Sam. A girl that Remus happened to have an on again off again relationship with. The only times that they ever really fought was when something came between the two of them, which was usually having to do with one or the other of them having a really bad transformation during the full moon since they were both werewolves, and sometimes the two of them got a little carried away and one or the other of them would lose control of the wolf and go a little crazy. They were both counted as friends though and they were trying their best to integrate two werewolves into the same pack as a continuation of the research that they did for the government. The two of them could change for the most part at will, but there were still times when they could be caught off guard and lose control at times, though every year that happened less and less for each of them.

Harry had greeted the two enthusiastically before he ran ahead and joined a couple of his friends that had agreed to meet them here and the group then spent the rest of the day enjoying the amusement park. The Marauders finally got home late that night after dropping Harry's friends off at their homes and were now all sitting around the table. The Marauders all looked at the young boy with proud smiles though there were small traces of sadness in their eyes as well since they now had to give Harry his last item now that he was 11. James nodded toward Remus who nodded in understanding and reached into his duster. Well Harry your 11 now and like all little wizards when you turn 11 you got a certain letter. Harry's eyes lighted up knowing that his school letter had finally come. "Of course being who you are you couldn't do things simply, you had to go and get three different ones didn't you?" Remus said chuckling as he placed three letters down in front of them. The Marauders eyes skipped over the Hogwarts letter since they had all seen those numerous times and studied the other letters while a hesitant Harry pulled the parchment letter towards him. The letter was written in loopy green ink, Harry studied it for a moment, there was a shield seal on it divided into four parts with a giant H on it and in the squares of the shield there was a different animal in each with a Lion, Snake, Blackbird and a Badger. He then looked toward the next one, this one was without a shield but had a giant S on it. There was what looked a bald eagle with the American flag for its body and clutched in one of its talons was an olive branch and in the other was a pile of sparking wands. Harry then turned to look at the very last one of the letters, this one had a S.W on it, and behind this was a familiar circle of small flags only included amongst the six flags of Texas were the various other flags that had flown over various parts of the South. Harry reached inside and opened the letter.

"What's that one?" Sirus asked curiously, picking up the envelope while his godson was looking at the letter with deep interest.

"That's the seal for the SW." Remus said in obvious surprise.

"Really? The South Western School of Magic sent Harry a letter?" James said in mirroring surprise at this. "I thought only natives of the South and West were ever invited to go there."

"That is what I always thought and been lead to believe." Remus said scratching his chin. "Of course, if they are inviting Harry he shouldn't just ignore the offer either."

"What's so great about this place anyways Mooney? Other than the fact that they're a bit exclusive in who they invite that is?"

"Well they do use our method in training werewolf wizards and witches." Remus pointed out to his friend. "I was talking with a member of the Educational Board at a luncheon the other day in fact, and he told me that nearly a quarter of the fifth through seventh years are now finished with their training, and that some of their younger years are actually werewolves with people that are willing to protect them." Remus eyes shined in excitement as he talked to his friends. The other two smiled at their friend's joy at the acceptance that werewolves were starting to get after living his whole life in the oppression that was Britain.

"Well that would be a good thing, but doesn't doing it legally and all take some of the fun out of even doing it?" James asked his friends with a grin, getting an eye roll from Remus and an agreeing nod from Sirus. So just where do you think we should send our young little cub? James asked his friends needing their advice on this his eyes had strayed back toward the Hogwarts letter, wondering if he should allow his son to enjoy the life that he had enjoyed or if he should let his son forge a path of his own away from all of the people that knew his pureblood family and its long history. While it was true that the Potter line didn't have anything like former lords or anything, they did come from a respectable history that dated back to sometime before the founding of Hogwarts if he remembered his lessons correctly. Personally the old family lines didn't impress James all that much, and he had never bothered to learn anything past his great grandparents and that was only for the times that his grandparents talked of their parents and the supposed good old days that were now long gone. Personally he would never understand why people like the Malfoy family and Albus Dumbledore were always so interested in the old family lines. The dark haired man shook his head, his mind having wandered quiet enough as it was

"They all are good schools James." Remus said carefully now that his friend was once again paying attention to them. "They all have their own benefits, and they all have their own problems, but there really isn't one that is all that much better than the other one. At least not as far as I know that is. Hogwarts is a traditional school and is protected by rather powerful wards, while the other two have rougher edges around them and the wards are either weaker versions of the Hogwarts ones, or ones that have a completely different style of Magic protecting them. The S.W is close to home, but it may not give Harry the feeling of independence that he may want later on in his life that the other two schools might give him if he were to go to one of them. If he goes to Hogwarts he would finally get the chance to be around his mother and sister, and you never know they may actually get along instead of disliking each other."

"But then there is the chance that Dumbledore would try and make him out as the bad child of the two, and there's also the chance that Snape is still teaching there depending on how strong his grip on Snivelus is." James said not really wanting to leave his son under the vindictive potion master if he were still teaching at their old school.

"We could always ask Harry which one he wants to go to." Sirus pointed out to them, holding his tongue about their old rival that he had hated with a passion when he had been younger.

The other two looked startled and just a tad bit sheepish as they realized that Sirus was right they should have started off by asking the young boy. "True." Remus admitted in agreement.

"Alright then Harry, which one do you think you want to go to and why?" James asked his son who had finally finished reading all of the invitation letters.

"S.W." Harry said without any hesitation.

"And why is that?" Remus pressed. "If it's the animangus training I'm sure we could find a way to get you a learning permit to work on it over the summers since you live with two licensed animangi."

"Don't remind us." The other two said, making faces of disgust at having become legalized with their greatest and most secret achievement. The two men would never regret telling Black Bear and the other Texas Ranger Directors about their abilities, but in some ways it had taken some of the excitement of their abilities away. Though to be on the safe side they had dated the licenses to a couple years after they had come to America it also satisfied the two for having a bit of an ace up their sleeve for how experienced with their forms they were.

Harry shook his head at this grinning at his dad and godfather. "No, the training part is cool and all, but not why I'd rather learn at the S.W than one of the others."

"And that reasons would be what exactly?" James asked, wondering if his son was purposely evading the question, or if he wasn't even aware that he was doing it.

"Simple Hogwarts and Salem are way to cold for me to even want to think about." The boy explained to them, and then shivered at the thought of the schools. "I honestly don't know how you guys ever survived going to school in the kind of weather that its like out there."

The Marauders paused at this for a moment before laughing in amusement. Harry may have been born in Europe, but he had all of the love for cold as any native Texas born child that had little love for the cold. "Only you Harry." Sirus said chuckling and ruffling his godson's hair. "Only you would be able to come up with an argument like that, after all, there is no way at all that any of us could argue with such perfectly sound reasoning as that right Mooney?"

"I quiet concur with you on that one." Remus said with a last howling laugh.

"Well then, we better hope that it has a good curriculum as the other two do then." James said, and raised his glass in the air. "To the S.W!"

"The S.W!" The other three all said, raising there own glasses in salute alongside James before they all knocked their drinks back, which mainly consisted of butterbeer and water.

Harry grinned impishly at his three father figures. "That's not even counting the dress code there either." He told them. The Marauders tossed the note around as the read the required clothing and couldn't help but smile. Like most American witches and wizards Harry was not overly fond of cloaks and preferred either the duster or trench coat that most wore. The three men saw that cowboy hats and dusters were the required clothing material instead of robes and pointed hats instead of ties and uniforms the children were allowed to where their day to day clothes in class as long as they didn't wear anything that was deemed inappropriate.

"Looks like Harry has this school thing made." Sirus said proudly, though there was a bit of jealousy in there as well. "No uniform, and allowed to wear your own clothes. Think you could do much better cub?"

Harry smirked at his godfather and pointed to something down below on the S.W form. "I know I don't do a ton of work around here yet, but I do make some of the everyday chores that need to be done easier on you guys right?" Harry asked as Remus scanned the part of the letter that Harry wanted them to. "Think about it, once a week or during roundups I can come in and help with getting the animals together."

This has potential and it would allow us to have someone to take care of things if we're all going on the roundup and someone needs to make sure that things like the smaller animals are fed while we're doing that are taken care of and when he's a few years older he'll be helping us out as well."

"We'll talk about it." James said, a bit unsure on the idea, though having Harry around to help with the smaller chores during the roundups would be nice particularly the Jackelopes. The ranch that they had planned out had grown some since they had first started and they now were one of the best suppliers for Jackelope meat even if they weren't as large as some ranches they also raised a number of show animals like Pegasus and had a medium sized herd of assorted other magical horses. "You may not get this signed until your third or fourth year though." He warned his son. Harry nodded in acceptance, knowing that at that age he would be able to do the more work and give more help than he could right now.

The three finally herded Harry to bed, and the three of them sat around the table and looked at the supplies that were needed they were the basic core courses that all schools had to teach according to the I.C.W. "Look at this James, Basic Shamanisim is taught at the S.W." Sirus said showing his friends one of the courses. Animangi's showed a high talent for Shamanism many believed that it was due to the fact that they were already in their own way connected to nature better than some people giving them a slight edge when they connected to nature.

James nodded at the booklet of third year classes. "How about we let him get past his first three years before we really start worrying about some of those classes eh Padfoot?"

"All right Prongs."

James nodded and looked at the list of books that would be required, some of them were the same books as he had used though the basic book of spells was by a different writer and probably had some American spells in them. James scratched his cheek feeling the beginning of some stubble making its way into growth. "Do you guys remember that trunk project that we came up with one time while we were throwing around ideas with Fliwick?"

"Sure, it was one of our best theory pieces of work." Remus said nodding at the memory of the trunk that his friend was talking about. "As I recall, though our power levels weren't strong enough at the time to actually do it though, and since it was our 7th year we didn't see the point in looking any farther into it."

"Was that the project to make a love trunk?"

"No, the one where all you would need is one book as long as the books you needed were in the trunk."

"Right I remember that one now, it was supposed to be able to let the pages of your book change or something right?"

Right.

"Yes it would have been a great time saver if we had one, and think of the advantage of not having to carry your books all over the place?"

"So, do we still have the notes on the trunk?" James asked his friends curiously.

Remus sighed, catching onto what his friend really wanted to do but nodded anyways, besides he doubted it would be to harmful. "Yeah they're in my N.E.W.T's notes at least I think that they are, I would guess that they are that is, I'll need to find them before I can tell you for sure about that though."

"So you think we can surprise Harry with it?" Sirus asked curiously.

"It'll mean a lot of late nights if we want to finish it before his first year." James said to them. "There was some pretty complex spell work involved in it as I recall not just power but the kind of stuff to keep the spells on it for as long as we can.

It'll need some sort of ambient magical power source then. Remus said as he brought out an old dusty notebook with a number of loose papers sticking out of it.

"Well lets start seeing if there are any changes to make to these things." James said with a grin as he summoned some of the Arithmancy and Rune books out of the library, while Sirus summoned the Charms books. Remus summoned a board on wheels that they usually used when they were working on cases and began placing the various notes on it they had a lot of things to get together before the school year started.

* * *

One Week Later.

Two figures entered the Houston branch of the Texas Rangers and made their way up to the front desk. The two were dressed in the robes that European witches and wizards preferred, making them stand out a bit as they walked in. The two walked toward a side room and entered through an rusty looking elevator and slipped inside and found themselves going down. When the doors opened they found themselves in a hallway full of various offices, but blocking the way toward them was a large desk that left only little room for a person to get through on one side, a woman was sitting behind the desk waiting for people. Off to the side a person could see where people dressed in dusters, trench coats and the occasional robe were walking in and out as they were obviously people that belonged there and knew exactly where it was that they were going. The woman smiled pleasantly at the two figures and greeted them. "How do folks, we help ya'll with something?" The woman pushed her hat up a bit so she could examine the two of them.

The two frowned at the woman. "You can start by learning how to speak proper English." The woman answered impatiently. "I also need to speak with James Potter at once." She ordered the other woman.

"And you are?" The woman said; bristling at the woman before her that had just insulted her accent.

"Ranger Potter is a bit busy right now Mrs. Snape." A voice from behind answered coldly, saving the receptionist from saying anything else to the person in front of her. Lily Evans-Snape and her companion turned around and saw an older man with graying hair glaring at them his badge reflecting the light. "What may I ask is your business with Ranger Potter anyways?"

"None of your business." Lily said in annoyance, that someone would dare to even question her. For some reason or other this man seemed to put her on edge much like Mad-Eye Moody did now that she thought about it.

"Do you not have anything that you need to do here?" Auror Frank Longbottom asked in a threatening way. "If not then I suggest that you move along before you get yourself into some trouble."

"Hey, you can't talk to the head of the Border Patrol like that." The woman said rising to the defense of one of her co-workers.

"Yes, nor can you just enter our country much less our state and not expect us to take notice of it. Particularly not when you use a well-known terrorist target site or when your traveling with a person that nearly cost us an entire tracking team that we loaned your government some two years ago. Keep that wand in yer robe senor Longbottom, or you'll be going to a healer to have someone pull it out of ya cause ya bit off more than ya could chew."

Frank glared at the man that was warning at him, but shrugged his problems off without concern. "They were dark creatures that you loaned us and you actually expected us to be able to find dark wizards with them? Even if they did help us find them they would have either turned on us or warned the Dark wizards about us somehow and what's more they were totally lacking in proper procedure."

The man glared an steel like gleam in his eyes. "We offered you one of our best tracker teams as I recall Longbottom, and they refused to help you after you tried to treat them like second-class citizens of some type, despite the fact that they were on loan to you from a foreign government."

"They were werewolves." Longbottom said as if it explained everything.

"Listen you little racist." The man growled at Longbottom. "Watch yourself before I send you back to your boss in bits and pieces."

"Is that a threat?" Frank asked cockily, he was one of the best aurors on the force and no old man that watched borders was going to intimidate him, besides he doubted this man ever drew his wand except for everyday things.

"It's a promise you mangy Brit, now what is it that you seem to think that you need?"

Lily sighed it was obvious the irritating man wasn't going to go away and while she didn't agree with the way most werewolves were treated she didn't see why they were making such a big deal out of what Frank had done besides if they hadn't wanted that to happen they could have sent some of their other tracker teams to assists and not some half-breed team that was more than likely only half trained. Perhaps if she cooperated with him though they could get him out of their hair sooner though instead of later. "I want to talk to James Potter about sending his son to Hogwarts where he can get a proper magical education under Dumbledore instead of under whatever crazy person that James thinks can teach him. Besides the boy needs to be able to make the correct kinds of connections while he's young and help his sister in the things that she has coming in her life."

"Oh so not happening Mrs. Snape." A dusty Ranger James Potter said as he came up behind her having just left the elevator his teammates were right behind him. "Harry made his choice about what school he wants to go to, and I'm not going to stand in his way if he chooses somewhere besides Hogwarts. How do you do sir?" He said turning to the head of the Border Patrol. "We rode out to that area and checked things out, there's nothing going on other than some of the Apache kids playing in the hills. There was evidence that someone had been through there earlier in the past few days or so though sir. Remus will have a report and all that on your desk sooner than Sirus or I will though."

The man smirked at the two dark haired men at this. " Of that I have no doubt. Good work boys, I know it's not a particularly fun job that you had to do."

"We are not done yet James." Lily hissed at the men.

"Its not happening Lily. You'll have to tell Dumbledore that his hopes of teaching both of our kids at Hogwarts is not going to happen anytime soon."

"You'll let him be taught by people like him?" Lily asked, nodding toward the B.P head.

"Not that it's any of your concern but yes I would, in fact Ranger Hernadez has been riding and protecting the Texas borders for over fifteen years and is one of the best white trackers there is. I wish that he was teaching a tracking class at the S.W I'd do my best to convince Harry to take the class and try and crash the class as well. He added with a grin. Or at least get a pensive memory from Harry so I could learn anything he might teach that he might not think to teach his Rangers."

Lily nodded still unimpressed with the older man. "Very well James, not that I particularly care but it would be a move that would be politically strengthening for you if you and Harry were to come home right now." She said in an artic voice. "I'm sure that someone who made it here could manage to find some sort of job in the Aurors right Frank?"

"Hmm? Oh yes sure of course, the Aurors would love to have you even though we might have to get you to go through testing again to make sure you haven't forgotten what real wizarding society laws should be like of course."

"For whom would having Harry at Hogwarts help you or Dumbledore?" James asked of his former love. "Or would Harry be regulated back to the evil twin theory that Dumbledore had, and would I be expected to ignore him and only pay attention to Violet?" Lily didn't answer and James nodded knowingly. "I see. Sorry Lilykins, but that is not going to be happening anytime soon."

"I meant for you Potter! With the boy at Hogwarts you could work yourself into a position of getting back into proper wizarding society instead of being out here and playing cowboys and Indians." Lily snapped at the man, angry at the old nickname that James had used at her it also disturbed her when she remembered that in the past that name had been full of so much love and now it was only angry sarcasm.

"We were never all that impressed or interested in proper wizards and how they should act Snape!" Sirus said finally breaking his silence. "Tell me, how does it feel to be married to a groveling Death Eater coward like dear old Snivelus?" Sirus questioned his former housemate with a sneer.

"He helped us out!" Lily defended hotly.

"Only after he learned that Voldemort had fallen and the dark side didn't stand a chance of winning since that arrogant pureblood tosser decided to kill any of the other real leaders that joined him so they didn't ever try and take over. "Not mention the only real help he provided to the war when it was actually going on was in trying to get you to saftey, but leaving the rest of your family to deal with the problem of facing Voldemort on their own. I suppose that's just the cost of war though right? Sacrificing the many for the wants of one man."

"Lupin." Frank Longbottom snarled, his hand reaching into his robes for the comforting feel of his wand. Remus raised an eyebrow at this, it seemed that the man had become a bit prejudice since the Marauders had left England. "Still hanging on the hems of Potters and Blacks cloaks I see."

"Then maybe you should get your eyes checked out while you're in the country Longbottom, or at the very least do your homework. If you did you would know that Mooney here is the one that makes the most money out of the three of us." James said coming to the defense of his friend.

"Now come on Prongs, you wouldn't actually expect someone like Frankie here to do his own work now would you?" Sirus asked his friend. "I doubt that it was in any of the information that was given to him by Dumbledore since he wouldn't have just checked things out on his own before making his big entrance." Sirus said all of this with a hardness in his eyes that made Longbottom swallow nervously. While he was one of the better duelers in the Ministry, he remembered that during their time in the Order that the Marauders were nearly an unbeatable team and that a number of the official arrests that he and his wife had were actually thanks to the group in front of him, and that any one of them was probably easily a match for him.

"Yeah, and that's not counting our other source of income either." James said.

"Other manner of income?" Lily said with interest her ears perking up at the thought that the Potter vaults might be full again. It wouldn't be hard to convince the courts that the Child-Who-Lived needed more money to make sure that she was well taken care of. Besides making potions was a rather expensive undertaking at times, despite the small amount that Dumbledore set aside for them every year to do their studies in perfecting the art of potion brewing.

"Not something that you really need to worry about." James said to her evenly. "Our final say in the matter is that Harry will not be going to Hogwarts where he can be used in whatever plans that Dumbledore may or may not have." James reached into a pocket and withdrew a toothpick and began chewing on it in a board fashion.

"But the boy needs a proper magical education." Lily pressed her ex, knowing that Dumbledore would prefer having her son at Hogwarts for some reason or other instead of any money that she might bring in from the Potter or Black vaults. Though she was pretty sure that the old man wouldn't mind getting some sort of control over the Black vaults, and having the boy around just might make that job a whole lot easier.

"The 'boy' as you have been so eloquently putting it has a name unless you forgot it somehow." Sirus snapped at the redhead. "Maybe all of those potion fumes have finally gone and gotten to you."

"Believe it or not Lily there are more good schools than Hogwarts." Remus said firmly, not letting himself be distracted from the core issue like Sirus was.

"Look Lily." James said, as he rubbed his eyes tiredly. "The three of us have been in the saddle for the past two days tracking down some leads, and we are currently in need of sleep so how about you don't try and push us right now huh?" Before the witch could answer James turned to his longtime friend. "How much longer Padfoot?"

"Ten till Prongs."

"Good enough." James said as he reached into a pocket in his duster and tossed a beaten up hiking boot that he had pulled out of some trash bin or other. "That will take you to the England Ministry of Magic International transportation room." The man told the two as he handed them the boot. "I sure hope the two of you were using a legal portkey. Considering that you dropped in a terrorist target area though makes me believe that you're actually here on Dumbledore's insistence instead though." The Marauders smirked at the two knowingly. "Would you please remind him that international portkeys are not appreciated by people that don't have a permit to be making them, and that they're really not liked when they set off some of our warning wards, and also that if he does it again there is likelihood that we will have to fine him for smuggling people into the country."

"Why do you keep talking as if we landed someplace we shouldn't have been?" Frank said, feeling highly insulted at what they were hinting at.

"Because you did." Remus explained to the Auror. "We detected the energy surge that your portkey made when it came into the country, and what's more you have no jurisdiction on this side of the pond mate so you had no reason whatsoever to be where you were and could spend some time in jail for it. Seeing as how you were oblivious though we're going to just let you go with a warning. Be glad about that."

"What do you mean I have no jurisdiction?" Frank said ignoring the warning that he had been given by the Texas Ranger. "I happen to be a highly decorated Auror, and have a high level clearance as well."

"Yeah that may be Longbottom, but in case you forgot, you just entered the U.S of A, a country that doesn't even use aurors. Even more importantly though you just tried to railroad a Texas Ranger into doing what you want them to do in his own base. That ain't the way things work around here pal." The B.P Director said as he glared at the man in front of him who was obviously suffering from feelings of over importance. "Get these people out of my face now before I decide to place them behind bars." He snarled at the group of men.

"Yes sir." James said, saluting before escorting the British witch and wizard away so that they could wait the clock out in relative peace. James rounded on the two figures as soon as they were around a corner. "Look, just stay out of our way and we'll try and stay out of yours. Oh and just so you know though Frank a Texas Ranger has the same clout as an Unspeakable only ours just happens to be worldwide instead of national, so the next time you think that you can throw your weight around at us in our offices you might want to remember that little tidbit of information and the next time you come into Texas unannounced like you did today you better hope that none of us our here or we will process you like any other criminal we arrest." Before either of the two could say anything the portkey activated taking the two of them away and back to their country where they would have to come up with a reasonable explanation as to why they were just coming back from one of the states.

The Marauders nodded grimly, glad that they had managed to get rid of the two Hogwarts representatives before they had caused any real problems and hoped that they wouldn't be coming back anytime soon.

* * *

Harry Potter's eyes opened wide as he saw the school that he would be learning from. It looked a lot like the pictures he had seen of a number of the Old Spanish Missions. According to uncle Remus this particular building was actually similar to what the Alamo looked like, only it actually had magical defenses and wards along with any physical defenses that could be put in place. On the wide double doors was the school seal with all of the flags that had surrounded it in a horseshoe formation over it. The various new students were all watching it with interest. Harry nodded to a couple of werewolves that were his age that he remembered uncle Remus introducing him to at one time, they were good friends all in and all he hoped to make some more friends though by the time the school year was over.

The chatter of the various students was cut off as the double doors were swung open and an older man walked through. He was of native American birth and had steel gray hair that hung over his shoulders in two long braids that reached past his shoulders, he had on a leather beadwork jacket with fringe and feathers hanging from it, boot like moccasins, and faded jeans and his beaten cowboy hat hung from a leather cord around his neck. "Greetings young ones." The man said, bowing his head slightly in respect to the children before him. "I am the assistant head teacher here. You may call me Shaman Fox Cloud. And for those who wish to learn it in a few years I teach the magic's of Shamanism."

"Shaman?" A scared voice asked.

Fox Cloud smiled at the child as he knelt down in front of the children. "Yes young one, Shamanism is an old art one of the oldest forms of magic in this country, but my magic's are not like those of the Japanese cartoon shows where a person uses the spirits of old to do battle with others that is merely a muggle idea of what true shamanism is. If you take my class I will show you how to use the very magic of the earth to guide you. And if you are skilled enough I will show you how even simple things like my jacket can become powerful weapons to use if needed." The children all nodded in understanding as the man then beckoned for the students to follow after him into the school.

"Gotta admit that jacket does look kind of cool." A long time friend of Harry's said.

"Easy there buddy, lets get past our first few years first before you go and start planning on your third year courses." Harry told his friend as they entered the school.

"Do I have to wait?" The other boy asked jokingly.

"If you don't you might miss some of the fun things to do out here as well." Harry said.

"Yeah like what?"

Harry grinned as he pointed to a pair of poles that were shaped like giant Y's sitting on a field, and above them was three large hoops. "Two words buddy. Quidditch and Football."

"Sweet." A voice from behind them said in approval.

Harry grinned, school might not be to bad and there were still the workdays that he would be away to work on the ranch that his dad had managed to set up.

"So, wand type?" A voice behind them asked curiously.

Harry grinned at the boy that was coming up behind them. "Cactus wood and Thunderbird feather you?"

"Dragon heartstring and redwood. Hope you don't mind, but my family has a large collection of wands."

"Don't bug me." The boy beside Harry said shrugging. "Names Colton."

I'm Harry.

"Oak and dragon heartstring, I'm Little Squirrel." A Native American boy said with a blush.

"Names Cody." I have a Rowan wood with Dragon Heartstring."

"Rachel, Willow and Unicorn hair."

"Sara, Pyracantha and Phoenix feather."

"I didn't know that they even used that kind of wood in wands."

"Hosea, Mesquite and Chupacabra hair."

"I'm Casey, Dragon and Cactus."

"I'm Jenna his sister Phoenix and Cacti."

"Legalist." The boy muttered at his sister darkly.

"I'm Jake, oak and dragon heartstring."

"And I'm Nick, Vinewood and Threstal hair."

The teachers all watched, pleased with their students as they shared with each other about themselves. If the wands that had chosen their students this year were any kind of indication, then it sounded like they would have quiet the interesting group of students this year. The teachers looked at the new ones and nodded some were the children of lawmen others were cattle or oil barons, some of them were just common children and one of them was the heir to the Winchester weapons line. Yes this batch of students would likely shake things up quiet a bit particularly with two werewolves in their group.

* * *

Albus Dumbledore frowned as he looked over two reports in front of him. On the one hand was the report from his own teachers, which was much more detailed than his other report. The reports were on two children at two different schools. One was that of Violet Potter, the Child-Who-Lived, defeater of Voldemort, AKA Tom Riddle, darkest wizard in over half a century at least, though he personally thought that the wizard was at least able to claim a hundred years. The thing that his former student had become was much darker than his own old friend had been. Grindwald had at least played by the rules of magic unlike Tom Riddle who only used them when they worked for him.

The report was not all of that inspiring, since the only thing the girl had seemed to excel at was Potions, Charms and DADA. That might not have been so bad if it hadn't been for the small fact that the girl was a bit arrogant when it came to her abilities, even in classes that she wasn't that gifted in. The fact that the girl was a confrontational young child had managed to make her even less appreciated by some of her fellow Gryffindor housemates. The girl though, despite her abilities in Charms, Potions and DADA was just showing average ability. The fact that Quirrel had spent the entire year possessed, and teaching only half-heartedly under Voldemort's direction was a problem as well. Then there was the fact that she had practically failed his quest that he had set up for her. Violet had been given all of the clues easily, and yet still had required for someone to tell her point blank what it was that she had to do. She had also not struck up a friendship with people like Hagrid who would have pledged his loyalty to her had she treated him correctly. Even so, the fight had not gone as he had hoped it would have, and Severus had been forced to interfere destroying some of his chances of being accepted back into the fold when the time came. The fight had let him know though that the blood protections that the Potter's and Evans had activated had died out after all of these years, it was a shame that he been forced to allow something like Violet getting choked to find that out though. Those protections had been one of his wild cards, and it was disappointing to learn that said wild card would not be of any use anymore. However once Dumbledore and Lily had shown themselves the soul fragment had saluted Severus before cutting him twice. One cut had taken off several toes while the other had got him in the temple, while Severus had been down and bleeding Voldemort had burned the toes and then left the body of Quirrel which had burned up. All in all, nowhere near the type of battle that he had been expecting, but the stone had been saved though so there was some good to have come from it all.

Neville Longbottom had at least been good at what was to be his calling life until he found a better one for the boy. The boy had proved to be a good enforcer; having inherited his mother's ability to seem harmless, and his father had trained him in a number of minor curses. The combination made him the perfect bodyguard for the girl if things had become too much. A guard that could hide in plain sight, and a girl that loved the attention a perfect team really.

Of course some of the political power that he had hoped to have among the students had not happened, the fact that a muggleborn girl was constantly making a fool out of his chosen one did not help matters at all. This Hermione Granger was actually the only reason that the obstacles that had been placed as protections for the Sorcerer's Stone did not stop the other two. No matter she would find a place in his world as well, she would do good working alongside the Weasley boy much better than she would with fellow muggleborn Dean Thomas.

Dumbledore then turned to the other file he had been forced to do quiet a bit of wheeling and dealing to get this particular file. The file of one Harry Potter was not as filled out, nor was it including of the adventure that Violet had been in need of. The old man had been disappointed in Lily and Frank at not being able to convince James and his friends into letting the child come to Hogwarts. He had many plans for the boy but they were easily adaptable. If the boy had made Gryffindor he would have either been above or below Longbottom, but if he had been Slytherian then he would have been the perfect spy or supporter. Because of the bumbling of the two of them though he didn't have a chance at getting at the boy this year though. The fact that their failure had led to quiet a bit of embarrassment for his followers was also annoying. It was rather hard to admit knowing nothing when the mother of the Child-Who-Lived appeared alongside one of the top Aurors in the middle of the Ministry of Magic atrium with an old boot that exploded some sixty liters of purple paint everywhere, what was more about ten percent of the paint had stayed hovering in the air for several hours making the words. **MARAUDERS FOREVER!** However the file had shown quiet a number of things about the boy. Harry it seemed under his father, godfather and Lupin had become familiar with the theory behind Charms and Transfiguration, and was quiet skilled so far in DADA and his power levels appeared to be slightly higher than those of his sister. That might have been a cause for concern if it was not most likely because something was wrong with their equipment, or there was some kind of difference in the measurements. It would not be the first time that those crazy American yanks had messed up something simple like measuring things out. The boy was also reportedly a great flyer already and had played as a reserve seeker for one of the schools teams, and he played some type of American muggle game called Hand Ball. That reminded him, he needed to talk to the Gryffindor team captain Oliver Wood about taking Violet on as the team Seeker, seeing as he had totally ignored the girl despite the chances the staff had given him the last year. He made a quick note in the other file before he returned to reading the male Potter's file some more. The boy also already showed that he was good with animals, and had great potential for some of the beast classes whatever that meant. The young boy also was making a nice group of friends that he cared for and cared for him back it seemed. This group of friends was an annoyance in his plans at best, and he doubted would really make much difference for what he had planned for the boy's future. Yes the boy was coming along nicely and he knew that sooner or later the Marauders would return, and that when they did they would most likely bring young Harry with them. And when they came, he would know the boy inside and out already, and the boy wouldn't have the benefit of having his friends to support him any longer. Without the usual help he would turn to either himself or his mother, or possibly even to his sister to learn how things were done here. He could hardly wait to see how this piece would play out in his plans.

* * *

Few Years Later.

Dumbledore sighed as he read over the latest series of reports that he now had to deal with. This had become a yearly tradition with him as he compared the two files to each other. Over the years other student files had joined them for correlation to something or other. It was the end of the Potter children's fifth year, and time and again things had not quiet gone the way that he had planned. Violet Potter should have become a power to reckon with at Hogwarts, and yet more and more she had been required to rely on the abilities of her bodyguard or others to get her out of the scrapes that she had found herself in. After the failure of Violet's first year he had tried to once again force the idea of power and responsibility onto her. The entire debacle with the Heir of Slytherian though had been a mess. With a few well placed compulsion charms Malfoy sr. had placed the diary into the Weasley girl's possession. The possession would have the joint bonus of bringing the Weasley and Evan-Potter-Snape family together in something close to friendship and it would get the red-haired family involved in the war. Dumbledore had recalled the great skill the Gideon brothers had been and hoped for more of the same in the next part of the war from the nephews and niece of those brave brothers. Violet had been practically handed the clues once again, but instead of using them to help her fellow students she had acted rather Slytherian and tried to find a way to use the information to her advantage in the end he had been forced to use a spell that allowed Violet to see that there was something wrong with Myrtle's bathroom and then practically throw her and that fool Lockhart down into the secret passage. And when it had come down to the fight with the serpent instead of the sorting hat helping her it had merely sat there and waited for her to make a move of some kind. The fact that the girl had actually been found without the young Weasley girl had been a bit of a disappointment some research into the effect that the Horux had on the red head had calmed him into knowing that at worst the girl would always be weak against controlling charms. A side effect, which in the end might make her a good use for later on when he had other things that he had to do and in need of a young female for.

Third year had also been wrought full of disaster as a test that he hadn't even planned had come up. Barty Crouch jr. and Peter Pettigrew had managed to escape from Azkaban. It had taken some research to discover how they had both managed the feat, but it seemed that Barty had been freed by his parents and Peter had amazingly enough been an animangi and managed to use his power of transformation to slip inside a condemned person's clothing and get thrown out that way. He had never thought the Potter traitor was skilled enough in magic to perform such complex magic's. The two men had met up and begun working together to find their old master as near as he could tell and had made several strikes at Hogwarts threatening Violet while they were looking for information. The girl had been out trying to actually prove herself after the Longbottom boy had given her reason. The want for revenge on Crouch had caused the boy to want to hunt the person whom had driven his Uncle and Grandmother insane with the crutacius curse. The two wizards had easily escaped the two well meaning but unprepared children and left them to battle a bunch of Dementors on their own.

Fourth year had been another failure that he hadn't been anticipating, and it was only because of Hermione Granger that he actually had any kind of warning at all of Voldemort's return but he would check that file later.

Fifth year had been another disappointment as the Child-Who-Lived let him down once again. Instead of championing the cause, and being an icon of truth as he had anticipated her doing Violet along with many of her followers had joined forces with Madame Umbridge, even going as far as joining forces with the inquisitorial squad. In a way he could understand the girl, she was used to being in power, if being in power meant that she had to work with the enemy then so be it. Besides, her stepfather worked in much the same way, it was rather hard to explain to a girl the reasons why she couldn't do it when her role model and protector was doing the exact same thing with Voldemort. Perhaps he should have stopped the romance that blossomed between the two old friends after James had left, but he had not been able to because he could not bring himself to interfere in something as old and powerful as love it was one of the few things that he was no longer willing to interfere in. He didn't mind introducing people and encouraging friendships and romances, but when it came to choosing someone he drew the line and would not tolerate something like that unless he had absolutely no choice at all.

Dumbledore turned to look at the second Hogwarts folder that had become a source of both pride and annoyance for him. Hermione J. Granger, a muggleborn girl with brains that surpassed Lilly's when she was a student, and power that challenged his own when he was but a boy. A girl that had once been insecure and afraid of people that hid in her books, had changed into a mighty lioness. The girl now under the combined tutelage and protection of the Gryffindor Quidditch team acted as a reserve player for several of the positions, though she acted better in her position as chief tactical analyst and mascot. The girl was one of a handful that had not been impressed with Violet once she had gotten to know the girl. The Quidditch team, which was full of people that all Gryffindors wanted to be like had quickly taken the girl under their mighty wings, and in exchange for tutoring going both ways many times they taught her flying and how to be herself. The team would be rebuilding this year of course, now that there was only Granger and Bell left of the old team, but he didn't doubt that the girl had been checking the various people last year for potential. The girl had also been the one who had time and again saved Violet from troubles that she had found herself in. With the aide of the Quidditch team Chasers she had figured out what had been within the Chamber, and how it was moving about, something that had taken him nearly ten years to figure out. Unfortunately he had been forced to see to it that the girl was petrified, but she somehow communicated the needed information to Oliver Wood and the Weasley twins, the three boys in a mixture of vengeance and anger for their friend and for the little sister of their teammates had attacked the Basslick. Oliver Wood had managed to stab the creature multiple times with the sword of Gryyfindor, while the twins had kept the creature completely distracted with their fireworks and bludgers that had on contact with the eyes of the snake had turned into balls of tar making it blind.

Third year the Granger girl had been the one to save Violet and Neville from death at the hands of the Dementors with the aide of Wood, fortunately that had been the young Captains last year and any more interference from him would from now on be next to nothing in the coming war.

During fourth year though the girl had truly shone, though at the time he had not known it was her at the time. Violet had somehow tricked the Granger girl into taking her place in the Triwizard tournament. Using some form of oath Granger was forced to participate acting as if she was Violet Potter. His heart had swelled throughout the competition as he watched what he thought to be his protégé best the champions of the other two schools and tie even with Cedric Diggory. He had thought that the girl was finally coming into her true power. He had then watched in shock as ten minutes after the unexpected portkey had gone off Violet's Polyjuice potion wore off and she became herself instead of posing as the student that was really within the clutches of Voldemort. Somehow the two champions had managed to escape, though Diggory had lost his entire arm due to the torture that had been given to him. Fortunately he had managed to convince everyone that was aware of what had truly happened, not to mention the fact it had not been Violet Potter that had been in the maze that night.

Fifth year Granger and the Gryffindor Quidditch team had once again surprised him. The Weasley twins had taken over the position that Oliver wood had once held as part time big brothers. Not even their own brother could have gotten in close enough to do anything to the girl and let her think otherwise about certain things. A fact that the boy had told him numerous times when questioned why the girl was still not seeing him as anything more than a pest. The girl had then further wrecked a number of his plans by spilling everything that she knew about Voldemort to that rag the Quibble,r which had gone far and wide. Then the girl had then actually led her own team of based off the Quidditch teams of at least three of the houses and then expanded a bit after that in the learning of DADA. After a vision from Violet, Granger and some of her friends had accompanied the girl and it was only because of Granger adding in a handful of spells had Violet stayed alive when she had chased after the mad woman.

Finally there was the Potter boy file, the young man's file was similar to what his father's had been when he had been younger, but how was he going to get the boy here though. According to the file he was a bit on the rough side, not surprising considering where he had been brought up, but he was also the leader of his friends, and was well known friend of a number of shadow creatures having at least two friends that were werewolves that were not Lupin, perhaps those two young wolves could be of use as well. The boy was currently on what was known as the Varsity team for both Quiditch and that Hand Ball game. According to some of the files he was well versed in several of the arts of Shamanisim and transfiguration. That tidbit was interesting, he had met a couple of Shamans many years ago and had been most impressed with their connection to nature, though he had his own theories about some of their beliefs. According to this he even was a wolf aide whatever that meant and had been one since his fourth year. The old wizard had never heard of the term, and couldn't help but wonder if it had something to do with the boys werewolf friends.

The headmaster shrugged such things were of no concern to him the boy would find a place in the wizard world of that he was sure or he would be branded as an outcast and their would be nothing more to say on the matter. The truth was out now though and it was time to summon the Marauders back across from the other side of the ocean to where they were needed. He already had a trump card that would easily bring Potter and Black running, and when they came Lupin wouldn't be to far behind them. Yes he had kept silent in letters and such things about the escape of Pettigrew but now it was time to bring them back. Once back they would most likely be dependent on him for information on things on this side since even with their supposed unspeakable like clearance he doubted that anyone would really help them. Besides it was probably high past time that the friends stopped sulking in the wilds of America and started giving to the world. Who knows once he had managed to get them here perhaps the three of them would see what fools they had been and would try and find a way to get forgiveness maybe even going as far as letting her have the Invisibility Cloak that James owned he knew that it was one of the Deathly Hallows perhaps that could be the first step in forgiveness when James how he could repair the damage he would suggest that. And when the Marauders came they would bring the last piece of what could be the answer to the war in the other Potter child. He pulled out a fresh piece of paper and began to write a letter to his former students to tell them of the problems that they now faced and that the Order was once again in flight. Absence makes the heart grow fonder right? Then after so many years they should be more than ready to reunite here.

* * *

And I only have a handful of notes left for this story, maybe enough for the start of the next chapter if I want to keep the length of the chapters around the same. After that I'll have to make it up as I go, so I may have to wait till sometime after Feb before I have enough to continue on with this like I have. 


	3. Chapter 3

Finally got this chapter out this would have been out on Valentines but my word processor crashed and i had to rewrite everything so here it is not as good as i remember the original being and about 10 pages shorter. Does anyone else have the problem of when they hit 40 pages the document wiping itself out?

* * *

James Potter knelt down behind a bush beside his two long time friends and nodded toward them. The night air was crisp and dry and a half moon could be seen above them as it flitted in and out between the clouds. The shadows of the three men's cowboy hats made them look dark and mysterious. "So are we sure that he's in there? I'd hate to bust the place and find out that the guy was not even there."

"Trust me he's there." Remus said to his long time friend. The other two Texas Rangers nodded, accepting the word of their friend. Since they had come to Texas and accepted the jobs, they had learned to trust in Remus and his sense once he had learned how to connect with the wolf that was inside of him. The man could now perform full or partial shifts into his werewolf form whenever he wanted to. He could also change into a complete wolf now, even if he was about twice the size of a normal wolf. Remus Lupin looked into the brown eyes of his friend and grinned grimly, they had a lot of work to do if this bust was going to go down like they hoped. The three men hadn't changed all that much since there arrival into this part of the world. James Potter still had uncontrolled and tousled black hair and a grinning outlook that he hid behind. Sirus had let his short hair grow a bit more than it had been so that it looked a bit wild and crazy most of the time. Remus had also changed little, unless you counted some of the wrinkles around his eyes having faded and bits of the gray in his hair returning to its natural coloring, nothing could be done about a majority of the premature aging that Remus had suffered before he had learned his control, but rather than hide it he wore the scars proudly as proof that one could have a life as a werewolf.

The three men looked down toward the hanger that they had tracked their target to. It had taken quiet a while to find this place. First they had placed a temporary tracking charm on a suspected worker for this place, and then had followed him to the apparation point, then Remus had tracked the man with his sense of smell down into a hidden canyon that the weapons were being used as a storage area. "Have you seen the target? I don't want to make the mistake of his being around here all the time as our proof." Sirus asked as he looked down amongst the men that were moving boxes around. "I'm getting a little tired of this game of cat and mouse he's playing on us as well."

"Anything to do with cats has never been your good spot Sirus." James said with a smirk and a wink causing the other two to snort in agreement at the joke.

"Yes he's down there." Remus assured them again. "I have a visual, and that only happened twice Sirus, do you have to always bring it up?"

"Yes." The blue-eyed man said with a grin at his longtime friend.

"All right then, are all units ready then?" James asked, looking at Remus who usually coordinated these things since his organizational skills were a lot better than either of the other two Rangers.

"Yes," the werewolf said, "all units have reported that they're in position and ready to take this guy down."

James nodded as he surveyed the area. The Marauders had been prepared for the past two days to move in and take the guy, but had been forced to wait while all of their people got into position for the raid. The Texas Rangers while a powerful force were also small, so they often times had to do some recruiting to assist them when they had to take down large organizations. The magical side of the Texas Rangers had it even tougher, but a recent recruit had solved the man power problem by having all of the lawmen in the know, whether they be squibs, the family of muggle-borns, or actual magical law enforcement they were requested as a loan for a couple days or told they had some extra training and then they worked under the supervision of the Rangers for large scale busts like this one. The Marauders glanced down at a picture they had of their primary target for this raid. Donald Flynn Jordan was a muggle-born wizard with family already firmly entrenched in the criminal world. His father had been a minor drug lord before he had been killed in someone's attempt at a takeover the boy's uncle had then taken over the duties while the boy went on with his life for the time being. The teenage Eric Jordan had tried to continue the family business into the wizarding world, but that had been a complete failure after all who needed drugs that were bad for you when there was the simple answer of the cheering charm that gave you a number of the same feelings just without any of the side effects that usually came with it. Since then the young crime lord in training though had moved on to a different kind of product for wizards. He now sold hard to get potion ingredients or the animal that the ingredient came from. He also supplied small countries and the rebel factions of those countries with copies of dark spell books and cursed weapons and objects. As a matter of fact the organization was supposed to be moving a large batch of lust and poisoned daggers tonight and they were supposedly offering knives that could drain off a small percent of a persons magic if they were stabbed into the heart of a person.

Remus pulled out his radio and spoke into it. "Teams go." He said, placing the radio back in his pocket and drew his wand out from an inside pocket of his duster.

James shook his head a bit as he drew his .45's, he owned two sets of .45's that he used constantly in his work. One set was a set of six shooters, while the other set was a set of automatics. Each of his guns had a bit of magic in them since the dwarves and their cousins the gnomes that lived in some of the California gold mines had crafted them. Their makers had crafted the weapons to be impervious to summoning and banishing charms; they were also resistant to transfiguration and disarming jinxes. The grips of each gun contained a partial wand core that helped him to charge each of the enchanted bullets that he loaded in his gun. He carried two types of rounds in his gun there were the bullets spelled to fire reducto enhanced bullets and there were bullets with piercing charms as well since there were times that having a dead man in front of them didn't help To day he had chosen to use the six shooters for what they were going to be doing.

Remus shook his own head in answering amusement since it was an old conversation for them about the tools that they preferred to use. James had his hand guns and Sirus had his Remington shotgun that was charmed similarly to James guns only his gun used reducto's and blasting charms for it rounds. All three of the British Rangers was cleared to use firearms, but James and Sirus had proven to be more efficient with the weapons, and they had fallen in love with their weapons. Remus preferred his wand or wolf form when it came to a firefight since it gave him more space to be creative than the weapons ever did.

"Lets go." Sirus said, after he had checked the rounds in his gun one last time. The three men then moved toward a shed about a hundred feet away that acted as a secret back door for the place. The marauders had been slightly impressed by the secret back door, but they weren't famous for sneaking around for no reason, and had easily been able to find the entrance to the back entrance. They were going to wait here for anyone that tried to use it as an escape vector while others who were coming in would take the other various ways in. The three waited the fifteen minutes it took for everyone to get into position before they all moved in toward the hole figuring that by now the others were in and were inside by now and they should be able to catch anyone that was trying to slip out by now. The three men moved forward and opened the trap door and were almost bowled over by the group of five that was coming through. The Rangers took a step back behind a set of boxes.

"All right, how about you lot drop those weapons?" Sirus questioned, as he leveled his shotgun at the group who were hiding around the corner.

"Not likely British." Was the answer as a combination of gunfire and spells came flying at them from the corner.

The Marauders were forced down as the shots came at them. "So how long do you think this is going to last?" Sirus asked James as he around the corner and fired a regular round at the group to get their attention.

"No idea." James said, as he pulled the hammer back on his gun and fired a piercing charm bullet that slammed into the doorframe next to an arm that was just visible.

"Hold them back for a few minutes, that's all I need." The voice of Jordan said, and then the group of guards came flying out they all landed near crates of their own and while the two sides were exchanging fire at each other Jordan blew a hole in one of the walls and slipped out.

"Padfoot go!" James ordered. Sirus nodded, and placed the shotgun in its sheath that was hidden inside his jacket before he started running toward the hole. Ducking and weaving between shots aimed at him the man made his way toward the target. When he got to the hole he shifted into his dog form and slipped through the hole and after their main target. James and Remus then began what would be a long gunfight. The two sides were nearly evenly matched despite the two Rangers being outnumbered; the two men were keeping their opposition pinned down. James had a scratch across his cheek where a spell had blasted through his cover and then almost hit him, while Remus had a lot of dirt in his hair from falling derbies that had almost crushed him when some of the roof had been knocked off. James looked up as one of the men came up and acting on instinct he fired, drilling a piercing bullet right into his chest. Two more men rose and each of the Rangers fired catching the men in the sides.

The two waited a moment before they cautiously approached the figures James was kicking their weapons away and looking at them while Remus checked on the condition of the one James had shot in the chest. "He's dead." Remus said as he got up from where he had been checking the man, and was instantly pounced on by a figure that had been waiting in the shadows.

James looked up at the figure that had just sent his friend flying. The figure was tall and broad shouldered looking. There was nothing obvious wrong with him until one looked into his face and noticed the large fangs that were reflecting in the weak light, yellow glowing eyes, and then there were the fingernails that were about two inch long claws that could slice through him like a newly sharpened knife blade through an apple. "A vampire?" James said in surprise as he looked at the figure before him. Jordan was hiring vampires as guards? This was an unexpected development since none of their information had indicated that there were any vampires working for Jordan. James turned his guns toward the vampire, only to have them pushed upward and then twisted out of his grip.

"Yes little wizard I am a vampire." The creature hissed at him darkly. "Now be silent while I deal with this mutt of a partner that you have. How you can even stand to be around his kind is beyond me." The creature said as its eyes glowing in rage as it mentioned the vampire.

James opened his mouth to make a snarky response, but paused when he saw Remus coming from where he had been thrown. "Hold these James." The werewolf said as he tossed his duster, hat and gun belt toward his friend.

James nodded as he grabbed the items and used his wand to levitate the three guards out of the way of the upcoming fight.

The two circled each other cautiously, and James wondered briefly how his friend could bother with these vampire challenges. Normally he might try and get involved and shoot the vampire while it was looking at Remus but he couldn't do much since all he had was a wand and vampires had a certain resistancy to magic. Sure he could banish something at the vampire, but if he missed he was likely to hit Remus and his guns were wherever the vampire had tossed them and he would have to wait to find the weapons since he couldn't summon them. The Ranger sighed a bit as he turned to watch the two fight it out.

The vampire sidestepped a hasty shot by Remus and laughed as he backhanded the werewolf into the shadows. "Come wolf, impress me. I can smell the power on you. I have not smelled a wolf as powerful as you ever. Show me what it is that you are capable of, or is the scent of power on you nothing more than that? A scent to make your opponent cower in fear, while you decides how best to get away from a true master of the night?" The vampire's harsh laugh echoed in the small building.

"Right." James said with a laugh in his voice. "All that power that you can sense and smell is just his soap. It couldn't be the fact that he's actually a lot more wolf than you really want to deal with." The man mocked.

"You joke human, yes this mutt that I fight is no threat to a vampire of my power. I doubt a 200 year old vampire has much to worry about from a simple dog like this."

"Great, you were a noble or pureblood before you were turned weren't you?" James questioned with a tired voice. "I recognize that better than you attitude anywhere, and since you can't learn it but have to grow up with it that means that your one of them."

"Correct." The vampire said bowing in response. "I was once part of the royal family in France."

"That a fact?" James drawled out unimpressed to the vampire as they faced off. "Well Frenchie, hate to burst your bubble, but I think you went and made Remus over there a bit angry. Trust me, you won't like my buddy when he goes and gets angry. People have a habit of getting hurt, and vampires literally fall to pieces around him." James said with a sinister grin, which matched the vampires from a moment ago.

The vampire scoffed and turned around and saw a sight it was in no way prepared to see. There standing in front of him was a werewolf fully transformed its teeth were glinting in the light. The vampire swallowed his surprise and thought back to the lunar calendar and was positive that what he was seeing before him was supposed to be impossible because there was a fully changed werewolf when there should be a man incapable of fighting before. "How is this possible?" The vampire hissed in slight fear. "This is changing of the rules."

"Really? Well I consider it more of a leveling the playing field myself." James said as he twirled his wand around in his hand as if he was without a care in the world as he watched the two. "Show him what you got Mooney." He encouraged before he finally remembered Remus gun belt and checked the rounds in it. As he was checking, he watched the vampire jump out of the way of a slashing attack that would have opened it up from hip to hip. The werewolf snarled and lunged forward the vampire using its smaller mass to weave around the boxes while Mooney crashed through them. The vampire finally seemed to gather itself and landed a jump kick to the nose which made Remus jump back in pain and shake his head.

"I don't know how you even exist, but I shall destroy you." The vampire said with a snarl drawing a silver knife out. Mooney dodged the lunge and slashed the arm slicing the blade, carrying limb off.

"Hurry up Mooney one of us needs to go check on Padfoot." James hollered to his friend. The werewolf nodded and lunged stomping on the head of the vampire with a satisfactory crunch a moment later the vampire dusted beneath it. "Good job, now go and find Padfoot." James ordered while he pulled his radio out. "This is Ranger Potter, I have three men and some vampire ashes that need to be dealt with in the secret exit."

"Confirm Ranger Potter, what's your status?" A voice crackled back at him.

James winced as he heard Amy's voice on dispatch. The woman hated dispatch duty, but she had probably been pulled into doing it at the last moment so that a Ranger could direct everything. "Um, my condition is good, and Rangers Padfoot and Mooney are currently in pursuit of the main target."

"Understood Ranger Potter do either of them have a radio on them?" She asked in a tired voice, already knowing the answer to the question.

James shook his head before remembering that she couldn't see him. "Negative, they are both in their canine forms, so Padfoot's is inside him or whatever and Mooney took his equipment belt off right before he changed.

"Understood remain at your current location until otherwise informed Ranger Potter."

"Understood." James said casting a longing look towards the hole that his friends had gone through, before he went about to making sure that the men were tied securely. He cuffed them heavily before he moved them behind a crate and began searching for his guns, while keeping an eye out for any other people trying to use this way out.

Padfoot and Jordan were rolling on the ground in a struggle when Mooney finally tracked them down. Jordan was bleeding heavily from a multitude of scratch and bite wounds that the giant dog had given him. Padfoot was looking slightly punch drunk as well from some of the hits that the man had given him. It was also obvious that neither had been given more than a moment to look up before they reacted in either way and were both just letting the fight go down to the natural way. Sirus with his teeth and claws appeared to be giving better than he received at the moment. Jordan finally knocked the dog away from him and went for the gun behind his back. The werewolf growled warningly, and the man paused and looked at the werewolf with a nervous swallow. His eyes darted to the fallen wand that he had lost when he had first started fighting with the large black dog and saw that it was to far for him to grab. The man considered the gun he had been about to draw but without any silver bullets there wasn't anyway he could really hurt the mystical animal. Slowly but surely he pulled his gun out and placed on the ground. Before standing with his hands in the air. The two dogs shared a knowing look as they watched the man do this.

* * *

The three Marauders tiredly walked by several offices. They had barely been back twenty minutes and they had been ordered up to the directors office for something or other and were making their way there now. The three men knocked on the door and Marshall gestured for the three men to come on in. The three entered and nodded to the big man. "Greetings boys, you did good on that bust, even if the number of bodies was a bit higher than what we really wanted." He said with a grin. "However, since none of the bodies that were brought back were law enforcement bodies, the various bean counters were quiet a bit happier to hear that."

"Thank you sir." The three chorused as they shifted around a bit wondering what else they had been called in for.

"Yeah, now the real reason that I wanted the three of you to come up here." The man said as he pushed a pile of wanted posters toward the group. "The next assignment is voluntary boys, I won't make you do this one if you don't want to." He said grimly as he looked at the group of British born Rangers. "Just know that you are some of the most qualified to deal with this particular problem that we've been asked to look into."

The men nodded before they warily looked down and saw a familiar face though it looked different than what they remembered it to be, but years of being friends together allowed them to recognize the face immediately. "Wormtail." The three men growled as they recognized the cowering figure in the picture. "We're in." James and Sirus said without hesitation, and Remus nodded in agreement with his friends.

"Thought you boys might feel that way." Marshall said as he began going over the list of other people that had broken out of prison recently. "There's also the breakout out of the LeStrange family, and a handful of other well known terrorists that are part of the England Pureblood Agenda." The three nodded in understanding. The old countries that were more interested in things like blood and lineage, and often had fights were known as Pureblood Agendas. England qualified as a Pureblood Agenda country because of their purity wars and their various decrees on what it meant to be a proper wizard.

"So what exactly is it that they wanted us for over there?" James questioned, as he looked over the various wanted posters thinking of what he knew of the Death Eaters.

"They want some of our people over there to assist in the apprehension of these criminals. Evidently there are some questions on whether or not their own law enforcement is capable of capturing these boys, so ya'll are on the top of the list of people to go there.

"What about Scotland Yard though sir? Don't they usually deal with things on that side of the ocean?" Sirus asked curiously as he looked over James shoulder holding back a growl as he saw his cousin's face.

"Normally they do, unfortunately most of the wizards in government employment on that side of the ocean are being tasked with protecting certain non-magical places and people of some importance. According to the people I've talked to at the moment they're stretched to thin. When I asked them how that happened I was kind of surprised. It seems that the European Ministry of Magic has been slowly but surely been pulling away from a number of the various areas that they have traditionally had wizards in, and whenever requests for more wizards came in the requests were just somehow lost." The man didn't sound overly convinced on how lost the papers were.

"So how are we going to go in then sir."

"In two different ways boys." The man said as he summoned a paper out of his desk. "Two of you will be going in officially as Rangers, while one of you will be going in as a teacher and as an added security detail to that fancy school that everyone is so proud of going to. Besides from what you've told me of your ill spent youth, there's a good chance that Pettigrew will try and use Hogwarts as a staging location since he can get down into places only the ghosts can get to. The place is also a political hotspot having one of you in there getting an idea on how things are going would be beneficial to the ones on the outside."

"And how are we going to get someone in there sir? I doubt that the Board of Governors or Dumbledore are going to just let you place a Ranger in there." Remus said getting nods from his friends who knew how the British Ministry liked to have things their way.

The man nodded as he made sure that he was positioned behind his desk for what he was about to tell his men. "That's true, which means that we needed to find a way, or at least an excuse to have someone go in there. Fortunately for us with the problems that they've been having, the American Council has given us a bit of a way in."

"Really, and how is that?"

"Well, all of the 11th and 12th graders from the S.W are going to be given the option to go over to Britain. We're hoping to have enough students agree to going that we can arrange for at least three teachers."

"I see." James said stonily. "And I'm guessing that you want Harry to join us on this mission then?"

"Well James, it would save us a lot of time." Sirus tried with a grin. "Cause you know that if we tried to go to England without him that the kid would find some way or other to follow after us no matter what. We taught the kid to well not to expect something like that from him in fact. In fact he wouldn't be worthy of being our heir if he didn't try and do something like that. You know I'm right about that Prongs." While the man was voicing his support, he did shoot a nasty glare at his boss though.

James grumbled a bit and glared at Marshall before he finally nodded in agreement. "True Padfoot. I guess even you can occasionally be right about things like this." He then looked up at his superior. "What all did we get out of this sir?"

"Well all muggle born sixth and seventh graders will be brought over here. That would be first and second years for you bunch of British Purebloods." The man added with a grin; since the two countries school systems were quiet a bit different from each other. There was also the matter that Harry had been home schooled like a number of wizarding children, which was part of why being home schooled was so easy in both Texas and Alaska. The older Ranger hoped that the explanation would help, since they might not quiet understand the terminology.

Sirus grinned at this. "Nicely done sir. You got them to get their muggle borns out, and our kids in for a bit of schooling abroad and it didn't cost us all that much."

"Yeah, well some of the muggle parents weren't to happy with the plan, but when they were told by people about how dangerous it was getting over at the old school they were practically throwing their kids at us."

"I don't get why your opening your doors for these kids though. I thought that the S.W was purely for Southern born wizards and witches." Remus said as he looked curiously at the man.

"It took some doing," the man admitted, "and even so, the secrecy wards have gone up to near full power just in case. There's also the fact that not everyone is particularly happy about it either, but none of them was willing to allow those kids to be picked off by these Death Eaters either. A lot of the parents believe that the school is an off shoot of the Salem Academy as well."

"I say Remus should go as the teacher." Sirus said after a moment of thought, as they had been digesting everything that they had heard and said so far. "With all of the Pureblood stuff, Prongs and I are more likely than you are to get into places at the moment Mooney."

"Agreed." The werewolf said, remembering some of the reports that they had gotten over the years on how werewolves were treated. There was also the memory of what had happened when he had seen Frank Longbottom.

"Good, so are you letting your granddaughter go as well sir?" James asked with a smirk.

Marshall laughed at them. "Well I wouldn't be around much longer if I tried to keep her away from this now would I? The only question would have been whether or not you three would have had anything left to attack after Jess was done with me."

"True sir. Glad to see that you won't be having a double standard for your granddaughter as opposed to my son." James said with a grin.

"As if any of that bunch would let the other go on a trip like this without the other." Marshall said snorting at the group. "They should be receiving their letters today to explain the situation. Which probably means that either your barn is going to be full this weekend as they discuss their options or they'll all be out on the Reservation."

"Yes sir." The three of them said with faint grins wondering which family would have to deal with the appetites.

* * *

Harry Potter looked up from where he was sitting near a shady tree watching a herd of Widowmakers as they were laying down to water. The boy looked a lot like his father, often time teased that he was the mini me of his father. The only differences between the two of them was that Harry's hair was a bit longer and shaggier than his fathers and that he wore a t-shirt and contacts instead of a cowboy shirt and glasses. The only obvious difference between the two Potters was that Harry was much darker, in skin than his father was. Also while James wore his Texas Ranger clothes because he had to and was for the most part adapted to the boots and long sleeves that he now wore, Harry wore them much more casually than his father did as if they were his true skin. His own horse, an eight-legged Slephiner was resting with its face buried in some water that Harry had gotten for the animal. He looked out in the distance and saw a dot of darkness that was moving toward his position. Harry reached into his saddlebag and pulled out a pair of ominoculars and saw a pair of Kites heading toward the valley he was in. Harry stood up and waited and watched as the two birds split up one heading his way and another going further down the valley Harry motioned the bird downward, the Kite landed on his shoulder. The bird held its leg out as it offered the letter tied to it which the boy took. Harry read the letter and frowned for a moment before he reached back into his bag and pulled out a walkie-talkie. Hey Wiley you read your letter yet? He questioned.

"Yeah I read it and I know that you need to decide something big hombre. You want to go for a ride for a while and think it out?"

"Call the others." Harry said into the walkie talkie. "I think I may need their opinion on this I'll be back at the barn in about an hour or so, have them meet up with me at the barn then."

"All right amigo, just remember that I'm here if you need me." The voice said.

"I know, out." Harry said clicking the radio off. He watched as a figure down in the valley below him jumped onto a horse and rode off leaving behind a cloud of dust. Harry shook his head as he watched Wiley ride off a slight surge of jealousy in his eyes. The boy was as comfortable in the saddle as he was on a broom in the air. No matter how long he tried, he would never be able to ride an animal with the grace that his friend managed. Give him a broom and he could fly circles around the boy, but when it came to riding animals the other boy was without question his superior. Harry climbed up on his horse and took a roundabout path that would lead him back to the house and barn eventually. The boy held the school letter and considered what it said and what it meant for him and his friends. Harry finally reached the house and nodded to some of the men who were doing various tasks around the place. He got into the barn and saw his friend was already in there waiting for him. Harry nodded to Hosea Martinez, or Wiley as his friends called him. "Hey." Harry greeted, as he began to put things up and cleaning the horse off after he had wandered around in the sun. The two boys were forced to walk around a bit as the wolf familiar that Harry owned kept trying to get in their way. "Easy there Cap!" Harry said with a forced grin as he pulled the wolf back a bit before resuming his work.

The two boys then focused on finishing their work, neither of them even blinked as a white tiger entered the barn. The horses eyed the giant cat cautiously, but stayed silent as it shifted into a broad shouldered human form. The boy was tall; reaching just under six feet, his blonde hair had small streaks of black in it much like his own stripes. The boy moved with a grace that he obviously had inherited from his animal form and practice. Colton Johnson, AKA Rocky was probably Harry's closest friend at school. "What's up guys?" The boy questioned his eyes scanning the room. "The way Hosea was talking I thought there was something that you needed help with."

Hosea shook his head at this. "No, not this time, instead we need to talk. Can we wait till the others get here though?"

"Yeah sure." Colton said, as he eyed Harry curiously wondering what was bothering his buddy.

Before long a red tailed hawk glided in and joined them before it turned into a girl with golden red hair who smiled at her friends in greeting.

"Redwing." Colton greeted the girl giving the girl a friendly hug.

"Rocky." The girl returned the greeting; she then turned to the other two boys in the barn. "Wiley, Jag."

"How are you doing Sara?" Hosea said in greeting with a smirk.

The girl scowled at the boy. "Wiley, I told you it is either Redwing or its Jess. None of that Sara crap, you got me?" She asked with just the barest growl.

"But it is your name." Hosea said with a grin at a menacing look he held his hands up in surrender as she took a step forward.

"And Jess happens to be my middle name." The girl said. "Get used to it." She sniped at her friend before casting a curious eye on Harry only to receive a wait sign from Cody. The girl narrowed her eyes but nodded in agreement.

The group waited and nodded to the pair of giant wolves that loped in. The two wolves exchanged greetings with Cap before they headed over to two stalls that had been placed there for them and the two wolves slowly and painfully changed first into a pair of werewolves and then into a pair of teenagers. The boy and girl reached down and began dressing in the clothes that they kept at the barn for when they changed. A few minutes later the two came out. The girl had dark brown hair that was often mistaken as black and was dressed in a pair of shorts her mother had told her to get rid of and a long sleeved shirt tied up to show off her stomach. The other werewolf was a boy who was dressed in a pair of jeans and a shirt that had a number of holes in it from long days working on the farm or ranch.

"Moonshine, Loupa." Jess greeted, giving the girl a quick hug.

"Jake, Rachel." Cody said seriously, nodding to the two of them. The other two boys nodded their heads in greeting. Colton was watching a preoccupied Harry as he was twirling his pocketknife in his fingers as he tried to think things out.

"What's wrong with him?" A voice said from behind Hosea, causing the boy to jump in fear as a figure seemed to step out of the shadows.

"I swear, one of these days you're going to give me a heart attack." Hosea complained in a grumbling tone, as the strong frame of his friend came into view.

John 'Air Watcher' Squirrel chuckled a bit at this. The Native American boy was big while, he wasn't as broad as Colton he could easily intimidate a number of people with his build. "Please, its so easy to do."

"Yeah whatever Morph." The other boy complained. "Not everyone has the luck of being like you."

"So its my fault that I'm a Beastial and your not?"

""Exactly and how the heck did you sneak up behind me like that?"

"There's a floo setup in the house as well." Morph said with a straight face, though his eyes were lit up in amusement.

"Right." The other boy said muttering under his breath about friends that always snuck up on a person.

A nearby fireplace flared and two new figures popped out of the fireplace. One was a boy that was a short figure that had muscles all over, the other was a girl who was well toned from the training that the father of the two made them go through. The two were both dressed in the same basic style of clothing each wore a pair of army pants, army boots and black t-shirts. "So you two finally got here." Jess teased, as she looked the two of them over with a hint of impatience.

"Sorry." The girl said with a grin. "But you know how dad is if we try and get out of training to early."

"All right, I guess I can forgive you, but now someone has some explaining to do." Jess said as she turned to look at Hosea. "What the hell is going on Wiley, and why did you make it sound so urgent and what's up with Jag?"

"Your up Harry." Hosea said as he retreated towards the horses where he was reasonably safe from the angry girl.

Harry sighed a bit before he picked up his letter. "I'm guessing that ya'll all got your letters today right?" He questioned. All of the other teens nodded as they each pulled out a letter from somewhere on their persons. "And I'm guessing that ya'll all got the invitation as well right?" He questioned as he held up a piece of paper that had come with his school letter. The others nodded and comprehension spread to each of their faces. Every year Harry got an acceptance letter from Hogwarts. Every year the boy opened the letter hopefully, in a hope that this would be the letter in which his mother or sister tried to get in contact with him and every year he ended up tossing the Hogwarts letter into the fireplace as once again he realized that his blood family had ignored him.

Colton looked at the letter uncomfortably. "We don't have to accept their offer, you know that right buddy? I mean we can just go about and do our usual thing at the S.W and be good you know."

"Yeah, besides have you heard about some of the crazy laws that those people over there have?"

"You don't have to try and make it better for me guys." Harry said as he looked at his friends with a weary grin. "I mean this is a pretty rare chance. If we have the chance we should really consider it."

"Yeah there's also the fact that its part of a cover for the Marauders to slip into Hogwarts without raising to many problems." Jess said as she pulled a piece of paper out of her pocket. "According to this little bit of paper the Marauders or another group of Rangers are going to be using that school as a base of operations, or as a place to at least to stage out of. "

"So then the Marauders will go, and it might help if we're there then." Harry said sighing.

"Come on Jag, its not your job to chase after your dad." Cody argued. "I mean seriously man, isn't it supposed to be the other way around?"

"And when was the last time any of us actually admitted to needing the help of our parents?" Rachel questioned with amusement, as she leaned against the wall.

"Only a handful of things could convince my dad and the others to head for England, and we all know that Rocky." Harry returned to his friend. "Think about it, what could be enough that Jess's granddad would have the Marauders name already on the assignment?"

"I dunno the Titans ain't like them, so maybe you can tell us what would convince them to head that way despite everything that we know about them and the falling out that they had with the big whiz himself." Nick said from his spot.

"Wormtail." A voice said from the barn doors. Everyone spun and turned to see the Marauders standing in the doorway of the barn. The three men looked stressed out as they leaned against each other for support. "Wormtail is back Harry, you understand why we have to go after him don't you?" James pleaded with his son, hoping that the young man would understand why they were going to do what they were about to. "He betrayed us and tried to have my children killed, and did arrange to have your grandparents killed."

"You always told me that making it personal was a bad thing for a lawman to do though, so why are you going?" Harry questioned them. "Wouldn't it be better if you all waited until after he was caught before doing anything?"

"In a perfect world we would do that kiddo." Sirus said soberly as he addressed his godson. "However, we have to do this job because of whom we are and who he is, or at least who he used to be."

"Understand this Harry, if you and the others decide not to risk going for whatever reason we'll understand." Remus explained to the boy. "But you also have to understand that we are going, and that what we're going into will not be pretty. Britain is on the edge of another one of their pureblood wars, a war that could be set off at any moment. If you stay on this side we'll understand, but if you come with us we'll be more than glad to do what we can."

"That goes for all of you." James said, as he looked at the group that was around them. The Titans, as these teens called themselves were not the Marauders, they were not pranksters but they were loyal to each other much the way that the Marauders had been to each other they were also a larger group. The Marauders had taught them everything they knew about loyalty, friendship, law and being one with your anamangi spirit. Now they would see where all of those lessons had gone.

"The Titians don't back down from a fight dad, you put a challenge or a dare before us as a group no matter how crazy or dangerous and you know we'll be there. Particularly when we know that our family is going to be in trouble. We'll do what we can to help. If your going then we'll be there to either back you up or be your ears. If we have problems with family then we'll talk to you about them because no one makes a Texan back down."

The three Marauders grinned at the Gryffindor like answer their protégé had given and at the fierce nods of agreement that the other teens were giving to the Rangers. They knew that Minerva would appreciate that style of response, even if she would disagree with children getting involved in things that she thought that they should stay out of. The men saw some doubt in the eyes of a couple of them, and worry in the eyes of all of them as they eyed Harry as if they were unsure that he knew what it was that he had gotten all of them into but they also kknew that where one Titan went so went the others.

"Go on and get out of here for a while." James said pulling Harry's Stetson down over his eyes. "I have a feeling you need to let loose a bit of tension, and I'd rather you not do it in the barn so go do something."

"Yes sir." Harry said, a determined gleam in his eyes as he pushed his hat halfway up. He then turned to his friends. "Person with the lowest score on the range has to muck out the stalls tonight." He said to his friends, as he headed toward the house to pick up the rifles that they used.

"Well nowm all we got to do is convince the parents of the others." Sirus said sarcastically to the other two, as they watched the group file out of the barn.

"They'll come around." James said with a false confidence. "I'm more worried about what our girls are going to think about what it is that we're getting ready to do though." The three men swallowed nervously at the thoughts of the women that they often dated. All three men had entered into fairly serious relationships with their girls in the last couple of years. It had taken Harry finally asking them when they were all going to stop dancing around each other and to use the guts that they were supposed to have. The three of them had in fact all been looking at rings and now this had come up.

"We'll figure something out." Remus said optimistically. "Just remember to carry a spare portkey on hand though just in case." He added.

* * *

Dumbledore smiled as he looked at the acceptance letters that he now held. The 6th and 7th years from the same school as Harry went to had agreed to come to Hogwarts. The other names on the list were of no real matter to him, except for the Potter name that was sitting there like a shining beacon of hope. He could hardly wait to get a chance to go at the boy and learn where he would most useful in the war. Who knows, maybe the boy was important in helping young Violet to unlock her power that had remained hidden all of these years. There might be something to the twin theory that some people believed in all of those years ago. Dumbledore sighed as he wondered where the Marauders were in all of this. He had yet to get any kind of return letter from them after he had sent them a request to return home so that they could deal with the up coming threat. Knowing the three men they had probably conned their way onto the coach that would bring the students and make some sort of big scene and make problems with Severus that would make the return of those three all the more stressful for some people.

The old man looked up as the wards on his stairwell activated and he saw the duo that was heading his way. "Enter." The old man said, and two figures came through the door. Dumbledore eyed the two with interest. While Severus had stalked into the room his robes billowing behind him, Lily had sashayed into the room with an air of importance as her robes seemed to float in an unseen wind. "Welcome you two." Dumbledore said as he nodded to the castles Master and Mistress of potion making. They were both quiet skilled, and he knew that secretly they hoped that he would one day choose one or both of them to apprentice under him so that they could become Alchemists. He truly wished that he could give them that training, but with Tom always out there he could not risk the abilities of the alchemist trade coming under the control of Tom. His two students would have to content themselves with just being masters of potions for now. Someday after the war was over, and he thought that they could handle the power and responsibility he would train them in the hidden arts of alchemy.

"Headmaster." Lily said with a smile, while Severus nodded his head in greetings.

"I must confess I was not expecting the both of you here when I told you this information." Dumbledore said, well aware of how the information was likely to effect both of his teachers.

"Then perhaps Lily should leave and I can tell her later." Serverus offered, giving the man a possible solution.

Dumbledore shook his head at his Potions Master. "I'm afraid not Severus, I feel as if I should be the one to inform you both. I had just hoped that I wouldn't have to tell you both at the same time is all."

"And that would be?" Lily asked curiously.

"Harry is finally coming to where he belongs." Dumbledore said with a grin as he passed the letter across the desk to his two students.

Severus took the paper and saw the hated last name that was the bane of his existence. "And most likely that pack of mongrels will be at his heels to make sure that he behaves in the way that they see fit rather than what the wizarding world see fit." Snape said as he tossed the letter on the table with contempt. "I have told you before headmaster, that we do not need your trained attack dogs for this war. Leave them in their cage across the ocean where they can leave us in peace. It is time to try things differently, we need to use a scalpel for this job not a mighty sword, which is what you'll get with those three and you know it."

"I will do what I can to ensure that they behave." Dumbledore said, "After all, despite everything, deep down they are still the same group of boys that knew when they had to stop and listen to figures of authority."

"And how do you know that they'll listen to you sir?" Lily questioned the old man. "They are different than when you first allowed them to leave after the war, for all we know they've changed even more since we last saw them."

"Yes, not to mention they are extremely used to getting their own way whenever comes to anything that they want." Snape said bitterly, daring the others to say he was wrong.

"Yes, hopefully they've changed for the better since you last saw them Lily." Dumbledore said soothingly. "It is very likely that you merely caught them on a bad day. The fact that they may actually be the reason that you did not end up in an American prison after that small blunder should be taken into consideration though." The old man pointed out to the woman. He needed everyone in the Order to get along, and for that to happen he needed Lily willing to play peacemaker between Severus and the Marauders. "For all we know they were in trouble for helping you out of that problem, and that was why they were rather short tempered with you that time when the twins were first starting school."

Lily shook her head at this. "Possibly sir, but I highly doubt it. James isn't the kind to hand out favors like that without telling you that you at least owe him one."

"Not even when he has managed to add a prank into his help?" Dumbledore asked lifting an eyebrow up at the young woman. "You know as well as I do that he helped many a person so he could set them up a little while later Lily."

"Yes, and no doubt the spawn that he kept is going to be just as bad if not worse than the great James Potter and his lackey's ever were." Snape cut in.

"We shall see Severus, besides we need to be able to reach out and gather friends from where we can and it is not wise to ignore the hand that offers to help you. Unless you can come up with a real reason not to have the boy come."

"How about the fact that if he is anything like the other wizards from that part of the world then he may not be willing to play with your games and what not headmaster. He may have other plans up his sleeves."

"Not good enough I'm afraid Severus, I'm afraid that we'll have to deal with the things that are coming. Besides, I doubt that young Mr. Potter and any of his friends are going to actually be of any real problems for us. True he may be a bit rambunctious, but once he sees how proper wizards behave he should come around and it won't be long before he will be willing to help us out."

"And if he doesn't decide to work with you for the greater good?" Severus questioned. "Potter and Black are extremely stubborn, and if they taught the boy to mimic that part of them as well then we may have a problem a problem that could cost us time and resources that we don't have to waste in the boy."

"Relax Severus. If worse comes to worse we can always convince young Miss Weasley to keep the boy distracted for a while." Dumbledore said confidently, as he recalled that the girl was little more than a puppet for whenever he so desired.

"Yes, if the girl were to be willing to reward the boy for good behavior it might lead him in the direction that you would like him to go in." Severus said nodding in understanding what the headmaster meant. He had helped with the check of the Weasley girl after all, so he knew just what it was that she could be used for. "Of course if things don't work out, well its not a good time to become a pariah. Hogwarts students can be rather harsh in their judgments." Dumbledore said sagely "And if it should happen that the boy comes to us for help well there is not much to worry about in that regard."

"Of course headmaster, if the need comes I'm sure that an accident will keep him out of the way from messing up any of the plans that we have set up." Severus said with a secret smile on his face as he considered the possibilities.

"Our interaction with him will be sporadic at best at times." Dumbledore warned the man. "Unless we can convince the boy to take your classes of course. I want you to press the subject of teaching the Americans I don't want them causing problems that we're not ready for."

"Don't worry Headmaster, I'm sure that that I can come up with something that will give them reason to prefer one of us to teaching them, and when they do finally come to Hogwarts."

"Just remember that Slughorn has agreed to return to return to Hogwarts this year and will be helpful in providing information for Violet."

"Once you get that coward to agree to help you mean." Snape said sneering at the headmaster. "The man won't tell you what you want unless he believes that it will be beneficial to him, and right now he is probably more interested staying alive than he is in telling Voldemort's secrets to Violet or you. Maybe you should let me go in and rip the memories from his mind it wouldn't take more than a few minutes and it would get the job done."

"No Severus." Dumbledore said, shaking his head at his former student. "There is no way that you will be doing that, I believe you know that I will not allow that to happen do not even joke about doing something like that."

Snape opened his mouth to say something else but a hand on his shoulder by his wife seemed to drain any and tension that he was feeling. "Very well Headmaster, if that is all." Lily said coolly. "Just don't expect Violet to be overly impressed over the fact that her brother is coming to her school."

"Its for the best though, surely Violet will understand that in time." Dumbledore said, as he watched two of his favorite alumni walk out of his office before he began contemplating what his next move should be.

Phineas Nigellus watched the interaction with interest, he knew that a number of the other former headmasters were all involved in some spy mission or other for the current headmaster. He however had been forgotten though he didn't think that would last much longer. Dumbledore would remember that there was another portrait of him and just here it was after that happened he knew that he would be bound by the magic of his portrait to report to the man. A part of him was looking forward to the coming battle of wills that Dumbledore would soon find himself in. Dumbledore the leader of the light had fallen heavily since he first became the headmaster of the great school. Once the man had been content for the most part. To be nothing more than a simple schoolteacherm and yet he had watched as the headmaster had let all of the honors and power slowly but surely go to his head. The man played his Slytherian like games almost as well as a true Slytherian would have. Dumbledore would expect his people to act like good little chess pieces and do as he instructed them whether that meant someone dying or something. He would be expecting them to be either his pawns or knights. It was almost a shame that the Marauders no longer played chess, the portrait thought, but they were now all card players. They were all extremely skilled in the game known as Poker. Now instead of playing the well-known game that the wizard world lived by they would play their own game and would most likely play the game with their own wild cards. They would not bow down to the headmaster, but would rather bluff their way through the things that were coming. It was going to be quiet a show for the portrait to watch.

* * *

Hermione Granger knelt down in front of a shelf in Weasley Wizarding Wheezy's and stocked the shelves with various prank items. The bushy haired girl didn't personally see the lure that most people felt with pranks, but she knew that there were people that did enjoy the things just as much as she did a good book. The girl was a partner in the place along with her fellow triwizard champion winner Cedric Diggory. They each owned 10 percent interest in the booming business. Hermione also worked as a stock girl and potion brewer since while the twins often had grand ideas, it usually took Hermione to figure out how to perform some of their more complex ideas. Though she did admit that having a lab to work in was a definite perk of her job. She still couldn't believe that she was working with the Weasley brothers on this pet project of theirs. She would have preferred to be at home with her various books, but her parents had informed her that this year that she had to get a job or she could work in her parents office as a clerk. The girl had originally tried her hand at getting a job as a book clerk in a bookstore, but had been turned down for college students whom had applied for the same post.

Hermione sighed as she looked at the crate of fake wands and other toys that still had to be put away. She was saved from the mindless task upon hearing a bell ringing and turned to see Cedric Diggory and Katie Bell walking into the shop. A dozen different boxes followed after Cedric, and Katie carried three boxes in her arms while glaring daggers at the smirking boy. Cedric sent his boxes to the middle of the room having them form a circle while a glaring Katie lugged hers next to them.

"Would it have been to much to ask for you to have gotten mine as well?" The blonde asked with annoyance. "I mean seriously Diggory, it wouldn't have cost you all that much to lift those boxes."

"But then what would you have carried Bell?" Cedric asked grinning at the girl in amusement. "Hey Hermione how you doing?" He greeted waving the remnants of his arm at her causing the girl to flinch as she remembered the night that he had lost the limb in question.

"Hi Cedric." She said distantly. In her mind she was back in that graveyard as they were righting themselves. She had tripped knocking the both of them down, and while the fall had saved Cedric's life it hadn't ended there. They had both been tied to a stone, and both of their blood had been used. Hermione had found it a bit amusing that a pureblood had used her muggle born blood to work the spell. Diggory's blood had been used as well as a way to counter her blood though. After that the two had been informed that they would now fight the Dark Lord. Cedric had been made to go first and the boy had sent his most powerful cutting curse which Voldemort had somehow managed to catch in some kind of globe. He had then sent the spell back at the Hufflepuff, even more powerful than it had been before. The spell had crashed through Cedric's shield and had sliced through the Hufflepuff's arm, just below the elbow. Hermione had moved as quick as she could and managed to causterize the wound despite what a screaming Cedric was doing. Somehow she had had the forethought to summon the trophy that had dropped them onto the graveyard and gotten them both out of their before anything else had happened.

"Hey Hermione are you all right?" Cedric questioned gently, knowing what it was that she was thinking about.

"Yeah," the girl said distantly, "just perfect." Neither of them said anything for a minute as they stared uncomfortably at each other. Neither of them really wanted to think of that night, despite the fact that they often were forced to relive the night in their dreams.

"So," Cedric said, "what exactly is going on at Hogwarts this year anyways? I mean I've read all sorts of files that dad has, and I can't believe the number of animal permits that they need at Hogwarts this year. So what exactly is going on down there anyways?"

"What are you talking about?" Hermione questioned in confusion and relief.

"Maybe you can get some answers out of him." Katie growled to her friend. "He's been dropping hints like this all day, and I've yet to get anything out of him."

"Well there is the fact that there are dress robes on the list of things for us to bring, so I suppose that there will be some form of ball this year as well." Hermione said thoughtfully as she considered all of the things that she did know. "So tell me Cedric, where are all of these animals coming from?"

"Well if they haven't told you, perhaps I shouldn't ruin the surprise." Cedric said rubbing his jaw as if he was in deep thought though the twinkle in his eyes showed his amusement.

Katie glared at the boy dangerously. "Cedric buddy, if you don't tell us what it is that you know I'll be telling your dear Cho that you banished Hermione's and my clothes while our backs were turned and took pictures of us in our knickers."

Cedric paled at the thought of his girlfriend and what her jealous temper would likely do to him if she heard this story, no matter if it was true or not.

"So Cedric, are you ready to spill now?" Katie asked with a grin at the older boy.

"Do I have a choice?" He grumbled

"Cedric." The two girls growled at him.

"All right, as long as you keep your nasty rumors to yourselves." The boy said. "I happen to like being able to walk without limping." Causing the two girls two snicker, as Cedric told what Cho would do to him over that rumor. "According to the reports my dad was going over, there are a lot of American animals that are being brought over to Hogwarts this year. Big and little some are your standard familiars and then there are the big ones like something called a Widowmaker which is some type of magical horse Hermione." The boy said before he could be interrupted. "And all of these animals are supposed to be around Hogwarts. My dad said that he hasn't had this much paperwork to deal with since the whole tournament deal." The boy said shaking his head in disbelief. "So I was kind of wondering if either of you knew anything about this." He said hopefully and eyed them.

"Sorry Ced, no. We have absolutely nothing to tell you about this.

Although it does add a couple of pieces to the puzzle of what's to come." Hermione said with a smile as her eyes glinted a bit as her mind began processing everything that she had been told about.

"Really, and what does it tell you?" Cedric asked curiously. He looked at her hungrily for the answer.

"Well, since the book lists included a dress robe for this year again, and the fact that a number of American animals are being listed as being positioned at Hogwarts."

"Then another school is coming to visit us." Katie said as she fit the pieces together while Hermione nodded in agreement while Cedric just looked at the two with surprise as they fit it all together. "So this means another ball." Katie said, and then looked at her friend. "C'mon H, let me do you this year." She pleaded her friend.

Hermione shook her head. "No way K, there is no way that I am going to let you come near my hair. My hair is my own, and no we are not going to do the rest of me either." She said, cutting her friend off before she could say anything. "We have had this conversation before, I don't know why you won't take a hint and leave it alone."

"Cause I can make you look great if you let me." Katie said stubbornly matching her friend's look. "I can make that frizz job of yours into a lovely ring of curls and."

"No."

"But."

"No."

"Um I think I'm going to go and help the twins with whatever they're working on." Cedric said backing away from the two girls, not wanting to get between them in this one. The boy made his way to the twins who nodded in greeting to Cedric. "So what's going on?"

"There really something going on at the school?" One of the twins said frowning as he looked at the two girls worriedly.

"You can't protect them forever Weasley, maybe its time to stop trying to protect them all the time." Cedric said as they watched the girls continue their argument.

The boy shook his head at this and gave a rueful grin. "No can do mate. I've been watching out for Hermione since she was 11, and Katie since she was 12 I can't go back to trying to pretending that they're not my little sisters in everything but blood."

"Be careful then." Cedric said to the other wizard. "Now what can I do for you?"

"Well since your so good at transfiguration." The boy said.

* * *

Slephiner Eight legged horse that Odin ruler of the Norse Gods rode.

* * *

Don't worry I still have a few parts that I plan on saving for the next chapter so I didn't forget everything. 


	4. Chapter 4

Whoa I'm back on this story! Here's the next part sorry bout the wait.

* * *

Albus Dumbledore smiled in his grandfather like manner as his eyes swept over the various students that were sitting down before him in the Great Hall of his mighty school. Sitting at their tables now that the feast was over were his Intelligent Ravenclaws, his Noble Hufflepuffs, his Sly Slytherians and his Brave Gryffindors. Each of them wore their house colors proudly as they talked with their various housemates. Each house had their own leaders; the reigns of power were unclear though when you went one step higher.

In the past there had always been someone who had drawn a number of followers from all of the houses. This year though, there was still a bit of a power struggle. On one side with numerous purebloods and halfbloods from three of the houses with a few Slytherians was Violet Potter who ruled from her political throne as the Child-Who-Lived. On the other side was Draco Malfoy, the newest Prince of Slytherian whom led the rest of the Slytherian house and a number of purebloods from Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. Finally there was the leader of at least half of the Gryffindor table, some of the halfbloods and all of the muggle born students. Hermione Granger led through a system of what was right and wrong impressing many with what she did.

Dumbledore stood as the students finished eating, frowning slightly at the 1st and 2nd years that were at the school. Soon some of those boys and girls would no longer be here amongst them. Still though, the loss of the youngsters was necessary for the greater good of Britain's Wizarding World.

"Greetings once again to all of you old faces, and hello to those that are new here. There are a few head of term announcements that need to be gone over before we allow ourselves to go to bed. First off the Forbidden Forrest is just as it implies forbidden. Some of our returning students would do well to remember that little bit of information." He added, looking around the room at various figures that were smirking or blushing. "Second all items from WWW have been placed on the band list. If you wish to get a full list I believe that Mr. Filch has just finished updating the list and it can be found in his office."

"Now then for the more interesting bit." The old wizard continued rubbing his hands together in anticipation. "Some of you may have noticed that some of our First and Second year classes appear to be rather subdued this year even for them." He told the man with a smile. "That is because some of them will be traveling across the sea to spend time with our American cousins this year in some of the wilds of American West."

There was a buzzing at this bit of information as everyone looked at the younger years jealously. Dumbledore let it build up for a minute, watching the various reactions of all of his students before he decided to retake control of the students before they became lost in their mutterings. "As for Hogwarts, she will be playing host for some of the 6th and 7th years of the American school that will be taking care of our younger years. Since some of our teachers will be joining our younger years you can be sure that there will be some new teaching staff later on."

"For now though, enjoy yourselves and prepare for the things that are to come. Now tomorrow I believe that you all have classes, so if you will go and rest yourselves up for tomorrow you have a hard day of work to jump into." The old man then sat down in his overstuffed golden chair.

Everyone headed towards their respective houses, the staff watched as the three leaders nodded to their various friends and allies. All of the teachers had been forced to agree not to interfere in what was going on unless it got dangerous, but that didn't mean that they didn't all have a favorite. Hermione had McGonagall, Hagrid and Flitwick while Draco and Violet shared Severus, Draco also had Filch, Sprout and Sinistra while Violet also had Dumbledore her mother and a couple of the other professors watching her back. All in all it made for a very dangerous balancing act for the teachers to play in case they were swept overboard.

* * *

As the Gryffindors all walked into their common room Hermione lowered herself into one of her favorite chairs near the fire. The chair was roughed up and had the sweet smell of butterbeer all over it. A courtesy of several bottles had fallen over it during the years. The girl was glancing through a small pocket book that she carried on her when Violet Evans-Potter-Snape entered the tower. The girl was surrounded by her usual group of followers that tagged along after her.

The group was made up of a mixture of various people from different backgrounds and bloodlines. There was Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown. Those two were Violet's chief sources of information. Trailing along was Neville Longbottom, Violet's old family friend and chief enforcer within Gryffindor. On the other side was Ronald Weasley a hanger on and a bit of extra muscle whenever Neville wasn't enough. Trailing the entire group though was 5th year Colin Creevy. The boy had been swept up in the legend of the Child-Who-Lived, and never quiet gotten over it even though he did come to some of the others when he needed it.

Hermione ignored the group till Violet waved her followers back a few steps so that she was now facing the brunette on her own. Hermione looked up at the girl with disinterest. Violet was a tall girl with several curves in all of the right places. The girl had green eyes, and dark colored hair that while officially was red was so dark that it was considered black. The girl was well known for wearing the most fashionable robes and was in general a pain in the neck as far as Hermione was concerned. Hermione on the other hand was of average height and had curly brown hair that usually remained in a bushy mess and usually dressed in either her simple Hogwarts uniform or she wore simple muggle clothes.

"Granger." Violet said with a bit of a scowl that mirrored her stepfather's.

"Tri." Hermione returned with a smirk and a tone of indifference. She had come up with the name for the girl when she had irritated her one time to many in their first year. For some reason or other the girl didn't appreciate having people she considered beneath her reminding her that she was related to the Potter name and this way she respected that feeling while still calling her all of the names as well.

The girl scowled deepened, but waved her off for the moment. "Listen Granger, I want to offer a truce." The girl said loudly enough so that everyone could hear her. "With the war coming and all, I now have to many duties to worry about what you and your friends are up to."

The other Gryffindors grew quiet at this, since the way that the two leaders chose to go could influence the way things went throughout the castle. "Really? Last year you didn't seem to worry too much about it." The brunette challenged the girl. "Of course, according to the rumors you were a bit busy showing the various boys in the Inquisition Squad what your knickers looked like." Hermione said while arching her eyebrows at the girl. "I understand that you and Malfoy got to be rather good friends last year as well. Tell me when do you plan to make him your own little pet snake? Or is it the other way around, and he intends to make you his housecat?"

"Besides I don't trust you any farther than I could banish Peeves. So how about you take your Slytherian styled deal making and leave me alone."

Violet glared, and all could see that the girl wanted to reach for her wand. Hermione waited for the girl to make a move. Everyone knew that when it came down to speed that the two girls were about equal in skill, and that the only difference was that Violet had a love for more powerful spells whereas Hermione had a tendency to use more complex spells. Both of their eyes flicked to Neville, but he was keeping unnaturally still since Katie Bell was standing right behind him making any fight that the two had one on one.

"Listen to me Granger, and listen good, I don't want to fight with you anymore." Violet ground out at the other girl.

"Good, then leave me alone." Hermione told the other girl coolly. "That way, we won't have any problems."

There were a few snickers at this and Neville Longbottom turned to glare at the other 6th years that were laughing. Dean and Seamus were both backing their bushy haired study partner. Neville promised himself that he would be having a talk with the two boys when Granger wasn't there to protect them from him.

"Have all the fun that you want with them, I really don't care." Hermione told the other witch. "I have other things that I have to do than to argue with you. So go and play your games with Dumbledore and leave my friends and I alone."

Violet held back a growl of frustration. If she walked away now she would be accepting the dismissal of the bookworm something she really didn't want to do.

She would love to turn the girl inside out right now, but she was supposed to be making nice with her. If only the girl didn't have so much political capital right now then maybe she could treat her differently but right now the girl was connected. Violet had lost quiet a bit of her respectability in the press while Granger's had risen. Those connections were ones that Dumbledore wanted though. The headmaster had tried all summer to convince the girl to join them at the Headquarters for the Order of the Phoenix. The girl had returned all of his requests with polite refusals, and then had the gall to take a job in the wizarding world. It wasn't as if she had actually needed the money since she had the tri-wizard winnings. Winnings that were technically hers, even if Granger had done all of the work.

Violet couldn't believe that she was going to be forced to play nice with the buck toothed, bushy haired, know-it-all, muggle born pain now though. Didn't the girl understand that she had done what she had for the greater good of the wizarding world? Taking a deep calming breath Violet walked away and joined her friends.

Hermione rolled her eyes as Violet stalked off. The girl was a little to used to having people bend over backwards for her, she sometimes wondered why the girl thought the way she did. It wasn't as if she was some mighty powerhouse at magic. Admittedly she was a gifted potion brewer, and charms person and she was one of the top five students in dueling. However though she was not a child prodigy, but a regular student. Hermione shrugged her shoulders and returned to her book.

* * *

The Titans all huffed as they began to load their gear into their bags. They all had their lockers and possible bags set to go all that was left was loading them into the wagon that they would be taking.

"I told you Redwing, you can't follow us while were all in the cart." Jag told his friend. "A team of Widowmakers going like they will be will be way to fast for ya to keep up with and you'll be blown away or left behind."

"Come on there's gotta be some way to get around that." The girl whined. "I mean seriously Jag, how the heck am I gonna be able to deal with being stuck inside of a wagon the entire trip there? You know how I get stir crazy unless I'm up in the air."

"Um you could always take a sleeping draught?" Jenna said from where she and her twin brother Casey were moving some of the heavier boxes. The twins were military children and were always having to train under their parents eyes. This training gave the two of them slightly different body types than the others whose muscles had come from hard work on the Marauder ranch rather than training.

"Easy for you to say Scream." Jess said in annoyance. "I happen to hate being drugged though."

"Can't say that I blame ya." Grizz grunted as he hefted the box into the wagon while his sister was distracted. "If dad ever heard of us usin potions to sleep with on something like this he would have our hides." He gave his sister a look, which she ignored.

The group stopped their kidding around as they saw a group a year older than them was bringing their own gear with them. "Awe great, we get to spend the year with some of the purebloods." Jake said clenching his fist as the group made their way up to the wagon.

"Ignore them man, they ain't got nothing to do with us." Grizz told the werewolf, as he shifted his duffel bag around.

"Doesn't mean I have to like them." The boy growled as he watched the Pureblood seventh years.

"You must learn to harness that temper of yours." Fox Cloud chided as he came up to them followed by Remus and Mr. Banks. The man was tall and had sandy hair that had been bleached from staying out in the sun. The man was one of the leading Voodoo experts that had actually left Louisiana and more importantly the Mississippi.

"Yes sir." The boy said, though he didn't look the least bit repentant as he glared at the boys making their way toward them.

"He is right my friend, he is not worth de trouble of getting into a fight over." Professor Banks said with a smirk. "Let nature take her course and she will deal with problems that come our way."

The group of teachers shook their heads as they watched the 6th and 7th years greet each other with thin veils of contempt for each other. "Well if it ain't the high and mighty sixth years. A blonde boy said with a sneer. "I'm amazed that your mommy and daddy's let you all come with the big kids. Oh wait I forgot not all of you have mommies and daddy's that care enough about all of you."

Harry was held back by some of his friends and Jess was held back as well. The two teens came from single parent homes and the way that the seventh year was goading them was enough to make them want to take them down.

"At least we don't need to have parents that hire babysitters for us." Wiley returned at the older boy. "I mean do you actually see your parents or are they always 'to busy' for you?" The boy flushed and glared as his insults were returned.

"Look on the bright side boys at least they don't have to play nice with Northerners." Banks said with a grin. The other two nodded in agreement. There was still quiet a bit of bad blood between Northern and Southern born wizards and witches because of the long lives magical people.

"Yes I can just imagine how that would have turned out." Remus said dryly as he watched the two years finally finish loading their gear up. "If that were to happen I think one of us would have to stay behind so that a healer could have joined us." The two men chuckled but nodded their heads in agreement.

"I suppose we should have them load up." Banks said as he watched the two years face off against each other. Clapping his hands together he looked at the two groups. "All right people. here's the deal no trying to kill each other and try to look as united as possible. Do this and you can all bring your football gear with you and can murder each other on the field. How's that sound?

The groups nodded and backed away from each other so that they could get their things together.

Remus sighed as he watched the two years move around gathering their things up for the coming year. "You know, I'm kind of curious as to how well accepted we're all going to be."

"How so?" A student asked with interest.

"Well as far as they'll be concerned we don't dress anything like a traditional wizard should." The Texas Ranger explained to them. "They all prefer the stereotypical wizard look than regular clothes that are easier to find. That is mainly due to the pureblood traditionalist being in command of so much of things. Even here in America they control much it is why a school like ours is not as well known as say the Salem Academy. You may not completely agree with it but, that is the way much of wizarding society is ruled. There are only a few places in the world that traditional style is not embraced. You are all lucky that you go to school where you have been taught not to look for blood but for other things."

"So in other words, you three are really going to stick out." Jess said as she looked at the three teachers who were dressed in a combination of muggle clothes, bones and animal skins.

Fox Cloud nodded in amused agreement. "Just because you are somewhere else though, does not mean that you should change your looks. Be true to who and what you are, and you will find the truer power within yourselves."

"Yes sir." Several of the students chorused obediently.

* * *

The Hogwarts students all moved around restlessly as they waited for the S.W students to arrive. "So, how do you think that they're going to come?" Lavender questioned the other 6th year girls. Parvarti shrugged unsure of the answer.

The two gossips then turned toward Hermione curiously. The Gryffindor bookworm shrugged. "I have some theories," she admitted with a blush, "but nothing positive at the moment."

"A theory eh Granger?" Terry Boot asked with interest. "You wouldn't mind putting that theory of yours to a little wager would you now?" He questioned. "You don't have to worry to much since you're always right of course." He added to her mockingly.

"What do you want?" The Gryffindor asked of the Ravenclaw.

"Simple Granger, you're not allowed to answer any questions asked by teachers unless they ask you precisely." The boy said with a glint in his eyes ignoring the mutterings of the Gryffindors. "That, and a picture of you and Bell in your underwear. Unless of course you're scared?" He challenged her.

Hermione's eyes narrowed at the Ravenclaw for challenging her bravery in front of the rest of her house. It seemed that Boot here was trying to embarrass her into doing something and had managed to make her seem a coward unless she took the bet. The only thing she wondered though was why? A moment later she had come up with two possibilities. 1: Terry was one of Violet's followers and might have been put up to this. 2: Terry was angry over having not scored the top spot in O.W.L's and was looking for a chance at proving he was better than her and humiliating her at the same time. Of course it could also be a combination of the two as well the girl thought.

"You place two galleons and agree to the same point restriction except for three weeks and you're on." Katie hissed from behind them as she supported her friend.

The two sixth years shook hands and then wrote out their answers onto some spare pieces of parchment. The answers were each given to the Patil twins.

Everyone waited patiently for the answer, as word of what was going on between Terry and Hermione quickly spread up and down the lines to the older and younger years. Everyone tightened their cloaks as the winds suddenly began to increase. People watching the lake saw that it was having small waves leaping around as the windstorm tore through the area. "What is that?" Someone shouted over the howling of the wind. Everyone turned to where the student had pointed and saw a dark funnel shaped like object heading their way.

"It's a tornado!" Professor Lily Snape shouted over the wind in a slightly panicked voice. "Albus what do we do?"

Dumbledore calmly replied, despite the fact that he was yelling to be heard as well. "Lily, I sincerely doubt that Hogwarts wards would allow something like that through if it was dangerous."

Everyone watched in surprise as the tornado jumped over the gate and it was now through the primary wards. A loud neighing sound could be heard and then out of the tornado burst a carriage of some sort with six pure black horses leading it. "HEE YA!" A figure on the top of the carriage shouted, as he snapped the reigns with a crack that could be heard by the waiting wizards and witches. The horses raced up the path at a gallop, and some people were sure that they were seeing sparks on the ground where the hoofs were striking. The carriage came to a stop in front of Dumbledore spraying small rocks all over. Everyone watched as the tornado retreated and disappeared a few moments later.

As the horses panted and snorted angrily against their reigns, the man that had been driving the carriage leaped nimbly to the ground and opened a door. Everyone watched as several figures slipped out of the carriage. The first was a tall tanned skinned man with earrings in various places after a nod from him several other people came out of the carriage. The students were all dressed in long trench coats or dusters and were wearing cowboy hats. The only people not dressed like the others were a Mexican boy whom was wearing a dark colored poncho and sombrero and the teachers.

Dumbledore looked at the new arrivals with interest. The two teachers were dressed in an interesting combination of homemade items, animal skins, charmed animal bones and jewelry and muggle clothing. The headmaster's eyes then turned to look at the figure that was hanging in the back. This man was dressed closer to the students who were wearing mainly muggle clothes. The man had on some type of boots, jeans one of those heavy button up shirts a hat that was tilted to cover his face from casual observation and a large jacket that reached down to his ankles. Dumbledore was sure that he was seeing a sparkle from something on his button up shirt in the dying light but couldn't figure out what it was.

While Dumbledore was examining the adults intently McGonagall was eyeing the students up and down carefully. They were a mixture of sixth and seventh years all dressed in muggle clothes of all things underneath their odd looking jacket-robes as the teacher had taken to calling the things when she had first seen them a long time ago. Their muggle clothes had a few odds and ends that magic was leaking from.

The woman's surveying of the assembled children had stopped though when they had connected with a boy that could have been someone posing with polyjuice as James Potter when he was a teen. She watched in amazement as the boy said something to his friends, which caused them to snort in amusement. It was almost as if the transfiguration teacher had taken a time turner back to when James Potter was in school. All that was missing was Lily and the rest of the Marauders.

The woman shook her head though as she swore she saw the knowing smirk of Sirus Black plastered on the boy and being directed at her. That was when the teacher finally focused her attention on the boy's eyes. They were the same lively green as Lily and Violet's eyes were. They were the rare and exotic kind, which just made you want to disappear into them. As she stared deeper into the eyes that reminded her of Lily she recognized the emotion behind them as one of uncertainty fear and putting on a brave front. She hadn't seen someone act like that since Remus had been in school. This boy it seemed was truly the heir of the Marauders. The Marauders showed through this boy, and she could hardly wait to see what he would do.

"Greetings Fox Cloud." Dumbledore said, opening his arms up to welcome their guests. "May I bid you welcome to Hogwarts!"

"Thank you headmaster Dumbledore." Fox Cloud returned to the old wizard. "Do you suppose that we can enter your school now though? My students are going to need a few days to adjust to the change in weather." The man joked as he gestured to the students who were rubbing their hands together.

"Oh but of course Mr. Fox Cloud." The headmaster said and gestured for the Americans to enter the school.

"Thank you. You are most kind." Fox Cloud said before he turned to his students. "Wiley, Rocky Jag, Moonshine, Grizz. I want you to deal with the Widowmakers and then come on in." The man said. The sixth year boys nodded at their teacher before they began heading for the horses.

"I assure you, your students do not need to trouble themselves with that." Dumbledore said as he saw the sixth years breaking away from the group. The headmaster waved the boys to wait until he was done talking to their teacher. He was taken back momentarily when he saw that the group didn't even blink as they began leading the animals away. "Hagrid here can do the job and can show them where your wonderful animals are later." He offered, as the COMC teacher strode forward. "Now then if you boys will get back with your school we can all go inside." He informed the boys, who ignored the wizard and turned to their headmaster.

"Thank you for the offer Dumbledore, but the boys will look after the animals. Your teacher can show them where your stables are though." Fox Cloud told the headmaster in an uncompromising tone.

Dumbledore sighed and nodded to the groundskeeper. "Very well then. Hagrid would you please show the boys where those animals will be stabled and then all of you can join us."

"Right o prefesser." Hagrid said as he waved the boys after him, and began to head in the direction of his cabin.

One of the boys stopped at Fox Cloud's side. "Sir, where on the grounds do you want the tents to be dropped off?"

"Good question Wiley." The Shaman told his student. "Take them to the far side of the lake so we do not interrupt anyone and they don't accidentally interrupt us."

"Yes sir." The boys all said nodding slightly. The boys then began leading the wagon away. Hagrid nodded as well and headed after them to help.

Dumbledore shot the man a questioning look. "They're a rather skittish breed of horse headmaster, and with their power it is better someone who knows the beasts cares for them the first time when they are in a strange place. Besides those boys raised those great beasts."

"They helped raise those animals?" Dumbledore said with interest. "A school project then?"

"No they came from the ranch where Potter lives." The man said shrugging. "They are part of a special program that allows them to go out and help with animal care and all. Quiet a number of the children that come through our school are on the program. It is one of the only way farm families can stand to have their children gone for so long."

"Very well then. Shall we go inside so that the rest of your students can get away from the unforgiving cold weather that the rest of us take as a part of everyday life? Besides I think that the wind that you and those horses brought is starting to get to some of the other students." Dumbledore said nodding to students trying to hold onto their pointed hats.

"What did you expect headmaster? The warmth of the sun is a whole lot harder to get to come with us." The Shaman said with a smile. "Besides on the plains where our school is located we have more than enough of it to share with you."

Dumbledore nodded as they all went in. The sixth and seventh years split up. The seventh years joining the Ravenclaws while the Gryffindors were joined by the sixth years.

"I suppose now we will have to wait the meal on those boys." Severus Snape growled in annoyance, scowling at his plate as he took a seat. The dark haired man was angry that he would have to wait on a Potter before he could actually eat his supper.

"Hopefully they'll be here by the time that we are done with all of the introductions." Dumbledore said with a smile. "I can think of quiet a number of boys over the years that would have loved to avoid the introductions."

"More than likely they had it set up so that they managed that." Snape grumbled quietly so only Lily could hear him.

Dumbledore then turned to address all of the students that were seated. "Welcome to Hogwarts our friends from across the ocean at the South West Academy of Magic. It is good to see that none of you had any problems in getting here. May I introduce you of Hogwarts to their teachers. First there is Assistant Headmaster, War Shaman Fox Cloud. Joining him as a teacher is professor Banks, and I am afraid I don't know the name of the last member of their staff." Dumbledore said nodding toward the man that had driven the carriage earlier.

"Well that is because I'm only here on loan to the school Albus." Remus said, tipping his hat up and letting the torchlight bathe his face in light for all to see.

"Lupin!" Several people muttered in surprise as they recognized the man that was sitting with them as the boy they had known many years ago.

"And professor Lupin." Dumbeldore finished with a twinkle in his eyes.

As they all sat down Remus looked at his old headmaster. "Actually that's not the title I go by headmaster." He said as he began to pile food onto his plate.

"Really and just what is it that you do answer to if not professor?" Snape asked sarcastically.

"My title is Ranger Lupin." Remus returned in annoyance to the greasy haired man before he turned to Dumbledore. "I am here on loan to the S.W actually. I will be acting as a sort of addition to your security to Hogwarts wards and teaching a couple of classes on the side as well."

"I see." Sprout said. "It must be nice to have an assignment that brings you back to a place like this."

"I have to admit that it was nice to get this job, though there were less pleasant things that came with this job." Remus added to his former teacher

"Oh?" Flitwick asked with a chuckle. "That wouldn't happen to be the fact that you finally got the teaching job that Sirus always said that you were destined to have now would it?"

"Amongst other things." Remus said with a rueful grin. "By the way, we missed you during the last few Easter Holidays Filus."

The short man sighed at this. "As have I my friend, but things have been so busy on this side of the ocean the last few years that I simply haven't been able to get away."

"Oh that's perfectly understandable, of course the Titans may make you regret not coming later on." Remus warned the smaller wizard.

Filus sighed at this, as if he knew exactly what it was that he could expect from the group. "I wonder if I can join the other teachers with the first and second years Albus, or perhaps I could even pose as one?" He questioned hopefully.

Remus and Filus both laughed at this. "I don't think that you're going to get away from them that easy Filius. Besides who would teach charms if you were gone?" They were interrupted from their conversation when Hagrid and the sixth year S.W boys trooped into the Great Hall. They split at the tables, Hagrid heading for the head table while the boys headed over to their year mates that were sitting with the Gryffindors.

Hagrid's face lit up into a grin as he recognized the former Gryffindor sitting at the head table. "Remus!" The big man bellowed, reaching over and gave a friendly slap on the back .A blow, which nearly sent Remus flying face first into the plate of food.

"Hey Hagrid." Remus gasped, rubbing his shoulder where he had been clipped.

Dumbledore ignored the two as they exchanged greetings, his eyes turning to follow after Harry and his friends. The boys were calmly taking their seats talking and laughing as they sat down much like any other student of his might. He watched silently as the students of S.W and the Gryffindors began to chat with each other. The old man frowned a bit as he saw that Harry and Violet weren't close enough to each other to talk to each other, but were at opposite ends of the table. Hardly the best way to begin a conversation for siblings that hadn't seen each other in over a decade.

Some of Violet's actions confused the headmaster, since the girl actually appeared to be aloof from the Americans. Until he figured that she must be trying to hold court much like he did at the head table. She was staying aloof from the Americans, making it so that they had to make the first move. He had watched the girl do this several times before, but never with so poor results. The Americans were not paying attention to any one really and seemed more interested in trying to stay awake and eat. Perhaps this was just the wrong time for the girl to try and use power games since they all appeared to be more or less to tired to talk. He glanced over at the Seventh years that were sitting at the Slytherian table and saw much of the same thing.

Dumbledore's gaze moved away from his protégé and looked at the girl's brother. The Potter boy was saying something to one of his big friends while he played with his food. The boy was tall and thin, but seemed to have quiet a bit of muscle on him. He had shaggy and uncontrollable raven hair as his father had before him. The way he moved though was of the greatest interest though. The boy sat on a corner seat and something was just visible sticking out. A weapon of some sort perhaps? But his movements despite moving with the awkwardness of a tired person had a deadly grace to them.

One of the boys sighed sadly as he finished looking at his food in annoyance. The food looked like it was some sort of rolled up bread like item with a type of red sauce over it. Curious and always eager to try something new the headmaster served himself some. Dumbledore smiled after his first bite for despite the rather odd appearance of the food it was actually quiet good. He would have to remind the house elves to make this food again.

"Enjoying your enchiladas headmaster?" Fox Cloud asked with amusement.

"Yes my dear man these things are rather good." Dumbledore said as he spooned a large bite into his mouth. "It is good to give those unused to our side of the world the one thing that they can actually have is authentic foods from their culture though."

The three men from the S.W Academy snorted into their plates at this statement. "No offense and all professor, but the castle house elves have know idea on how to create TexMex styled dishes like enchiladas"

"Really, and what is wrong with those things?" Snape questioned with a sneer, the man had not bothered to so much as try the strange foods that were assorted around him,

"It is simple really." Fox Cloud told the man. "These foods have none of the real spice that is needed to be true Mexican dishes."

"No kidding." Banks said as he swallowed a large bite of food. "I mean seriously, who taught your elves how to make this gumbo? If I wanted dis type of stuff I go to New York where they have pretend food."

"Impossible." Lily said shaking her head in disagreement. "Hogwarts has some of the best elves in all of Europe."

"And dat is where your problem is." Banks explained to the redheaded woman waving his spoon at her as he lectured. "Your elves are not used to making really spicy foods, but have trained for the simpler fair of England and have training for fancier meals like de ones in France, but American meals appear to be something dat dey haven't been trained to cook. Tell me do dey even know how to cook a hamburger?"

Lily smiled a bit at this. "Now there is something I haven't had in a while."

"I doubt that your food is really all that difficult, perhaps you just don't know what truly good food is." Snape sneered at the Americans.

"We mean no offense professor Snape, it is just that our food is an influenced mixture of the world and here you are stuck on mainly what it is that your country has. Which in some cases doesn't really measure up. It is just a difference in cooking styles your house elves only cook European style."

"An oversight I did not think of." Dumbledore apologized. "By the time we have our next feast we will hopefully have some house elves that can cook American style."

"I hope so."

"Just be glad they didn't try and make BBQ or the boys down there probably would have gone on strike." Remus said with a grin. "Either that, or one of them would probably insisted on teaching them how to make proper BBQ.

Banks smiled and added his own thoughts into that. "And another of em would have insisted on making some proper sauce."

"As interesting as this conversation is we need to go and prepare the tents now." Fox Cloud said.

"Hmm, all to true." Dumbledore said reluctantly as he had really wanted to see how Harry reacted around his mother and sister. The boy seemed to be of the mind that it was alright to ignore the two of them and act as if they weren't even there at the moment though. The boy couldn't be allowed to do that though he had to understand that Violet simply had a higher calling in life than he did. The boy should be thankful that he was not the Chosen One and had been able to have a normal life. The headmaster wanted the boy to be willing to listen, but there were other ways to get him to work with him if he was going to be stubborn.

Dumbledore then stood up to dismiss the students. "Now that we are all fed and watered I believe it is time for a few announcements to make."

Fox Cloud looked up and groaned. "No, not that word."

"What's wrong?" McGonagall asked. But the answer came up to them from the Gryffindor table.

**"Announcements, announcements, announcements!"** One of the S.W sixth years started to sing and was joined by the rest of his classmates.** "A terrible way to die! A terrible way to die! A terrible way to die. A terrible way to be talked to death! A terrible way to die!"**

There were snickers all over as the song ended and some of the sixth years gave mock bows to the applause. Fox Cloud was looking a little sheepish at this. "I'm sorry, I forgot you hadn't been warned about that word yet."

Banks smirked at this. "Aw come on Fox Cloud, it wasn't that bad and they only sang one verse they could have sang more of it you know. Sides this whole thing needed to be loosened up a bit." The man told his boss.

"Hmm, that is an interesting song." Dumbledore said to the students with a chuckle. "Perhaps our American friends can serenade us later with some of their other musical abilities though."

"We'll consider it." The boy who had started the song shouted out.

"Now then, as I was saying before I was interrupted. Several of you may have noticed that some of our younger years are not with us anymore. That is because during the night they headed for the South Western Academy while the South Western Academy sent some of their own students who are sitting here with us today. Now because some of our teachers had to go with our younger years we shall have a new teaching schedule. As part of the agreement with our new friends here we will have various teachers teaching Arithmancy, Ancient Runes and Astronomy. Professor Evans will also be taking over the muggle studies position. We do have some scheduling things to examine, but hopefully we can get those over with soon. So it is time to head for bed for all of you." Albus made shooing signs at all of the children before sitting back down.

Once seated he then turned to the American teachers. "Perhaps Ranger Lupin here can stay for a bit as well and answer a few questions that we have. After all I'm sure that there are some changes that he may feel need to be made for security reasons and I would like to be prepared for those items."

Remus shook his head. "Take your time Albus, I'm going to wander around a bit. I'll come to your office later on and talk to you." Here Remus gave a cocky grin at his former teachers. "I'm pretty sure that I remember how to find my way there anyways. Professor McGonagall saw to it that we learned the route rather nicely." The teachers that had taught the Marauders chuckled a bit at this reminder that they were talking with a person who probably knew the castle halls just as well if not better than Filch did. Remus headed for the doors stopping only to look Violet up and down for a moment before saying something to the sixth years. The group all nodded their heads in understanding before he slipped through the doors.

Dumbledore watched as the werewolf slipped away with a grace that his student didn't use to have. The old wizard wondered where it was that the man would go. Was he going to meet up with James and Sirus who were most likely hiding in some corner till they could make a spectacular entrance? In truth he had expected for them to come in with Harry and his school friends when they took the horses. Instead they were still surprisingly absent from the castle. He had no doubt that the two were around since the group had never really been to far apart from each other. No doubt the other two were hidden somewhere beneath that amazing cloak of James or maybe disillusioned somewhere. It looked like he would just have to wait and ask the portraits as the return of the Marauders would be something to send the gossip of the various pictures into some overtime.

"Well I suppose that we should head for the office as well." Dumbledore said, as he gestured for his teachers to follow him.

Fox Cloud looked at Banks. "Take the students, and start setting up the tents. I want to deal with this first." The man nodded in understanding and headed out the doors after the students.

The group of teachers all walked to the office of the headmaster and after a quick password from Dumbledore they all entered and saw Remus was already sitting in a chair inside. The man grinned at them as he finished tucking something into his jacket. The various teachers nodded to the Texas Ranger as they all took their seats. Dumbledore perched in his own chair and looked at the group that was now in his office. "Well then, now that we are all situated I suppose that we should get started." The headmaster said to them.

"Well now that we're alone, how about we start with the disrespect that your students gave the headmaster." Snape practically growled out at the American teachers. "I realize that the Potter boy may not have the common sense to respect people in power, but surely the rest of your students are all that arrogant. Do your students have a reason for not listening to the headmaster?"

"Probably due to the fact that he is not their headmaster. Not that they did right by totally ignoring Dumbledore, but I had just given them something to do." Fox Cloud pointed out to the angry man.

McGonagall nodded her head in agreement at this, though she shot Dumbledore an apologetic look. "It sounds as if you have trained your students well then." The transfiguration teacher commented. "And really Severus, you can't expect for boys who probably know nothing about the headmaster to do just as he says. Now then what is your secret for getting your students to do as you tell them to?" McGonagall asked curiously as she turned to Fox Cloud.

Fox Cloud chuckled at this. "I am afraid that my control is nowhere near as absolute as you seem to think that it is. If I had that great of control that song would not have been sung. I just happen to know my students is all, and I can always bribe good behavior out of my sixth years with animals."

"A most interesting observation." Dumbledore said his own eyes lighting up at this tidbit of information. "Now then though, we do need to get to the way that classes that will be taught so that all of the students will get the full experience in their teachings."

"Yes, how should we do it?" Snape drawled out, slightly annoyed about the rebuke he had just gotten.

"I believe in our agreement we decided to either do joint or rotation teaching of the students." Fox Cloud commented innocently. "Our individual secondary classes would of course be open for observation by the students if they so chose to watch. Except for Care of Magical Creatures of course. I understand that you have quiet the expert in dangerous and exotic British creatures.

"Yes, Hagrid is one of the best there is on dangerous creatures." Flitwick piped. "If it doesn't have at least three different ways to kill you, or at the very least one major way then Hagrid won't show them unless he feels he has to. Of course he is well versed in other creatures, his first love is just in dangerous creatures though." The Charms professor said.

"It is good to know that they will have such a knowledgeable teacher then." Fox Cloud said, causing the half-giant to blush. "I believe that changing the primary teachers up every week would help and free some of the classes up for the teachers as well." The man continued as he turned back to Dumbledore.

Dumbledore looked at the man. "Are you sure that is what you wish to do? I am sure that if you wished to take the time to get more familiar with the school grounds or something that it would be alright and the Hogwarts staff can take care of all of the teaching."

"No headmaster, we wouldn't think about leaving our children. Besides some of our primaries teach different things, so we of course expect to be allowed to examine your teaching schedule just as you will no doubt want to look at ours." Fox Cloud said waving Dumbledore's concerns off. "Fortunately it is Friday, and we have the entire weekend to examine the teaching schedules so that we can tweak them so that they can be compatible." The Indian pulled out several binders and handed them to Dumbledore and McGonagall smiled as she waved her wand and several scrolls floated toward the American. "I see you still hang onto some of the old ways." The man said as he hefted the numerous scrolls. "To each their own though right?" He commented as he looked at the scrolls.

"Indeed." McGonagall said to the man.

"Well I see we all have quiet a bit of reading to do." Dumbledore said as he eyed the muggle styled papers.

"After a few other things headmaster, mainly to confirm we're all on the same page of course."

"Of course." Dumbledore readily agreed. "What else did you wish to talk about?"

"Punishments." The man said briskly while keeping an eye on the famous headmaster. "No teacher of yours will be punishing or giving punishments to my students, just as me and mine will not be punishing yours."

"And how do you think any of us will manage to keep order with this hanging on us?" Dumbledore questioned him. "It would be much easier if the teacher in charge of the class could deliver punishments."

"If you will write down the offence and the name of the student we can allow the teachers of the other school deal with their own students. This way we will not have any type of political problems later on."

"A sound reasoning." Sprout said nodding in agreement. "This way no one gets hurt, and no toes are stepped on either."

"And what happens if we were to ignore this?" Snape questioned in his silky voice.

"Why we would have to take our students back with us and then inform the parents of your students what happened and ask them if they would want their students back at Hogwarts or to be officially entered into our school." Fox Cloud said with a shark smile at the teacher.

"Now if you will excuse me I do have to check that my students have bedded down for the night. Or else they will all be up late into the night instead of sleeping like they should." The War Shaman bowed to the group before slipping out the door.

"Ranger Lupin, do you have a moment?" Dumbledore questioned.

The werewolf nodded. "Of course headmaster, I have a few security items that I need to talk to you about anyways."

They waited until the door had shut on Fox Cloud before Dumbledore let a happy smile light his face up. "Remus its good to see that you are alive and well. In these times it's always good to know that your old friends are still out there. I am pleased to see that you managed to get into Europe without any fuss either, complete with a bit of a cover as well. Though I am afraid that your cover won't do you very much good where you will be going. I have a far more important task for you than to protect the school."

"I'm sorry headmaster there appears to be some kind of misunderstanding as to why I am here." Remus said.

"Oh come off it Lupin." Snape growled out. "As a ready made werewolf, you know full well that you can go to places that the rest of us simply cannot."

Remus ignored the baiting and focused on Dumbledore with an impassive face. The man leaned his elbows against his knees and continued to shake his head in disbelief. "I'm really sorry Albus, but I'm afraid you're reading more into my being here than there really is. The three of us are here in England because of orders though, not because of your Order. I'm supposed to be here in case a certain rat or other low life tries to get in here."

"It figures that those two would be around somewhere." Snape sneered, "the three of you could never stand to be to far from each other."

"Better friends that will stick with you than those that fear or hate you." Remus returned at the man with a bit of steel. "Now would you please stop interrupting? I would like to get to bed sometime tonight."

"Enough, the both of you." Dumbledore stepped in before things escalated. The old man then turned a penetrating gaze on the werewolf. "I am disappointed in the three of you Remus. Of all the people I rather thought you three would understand the odds stacked against us and that you would be helping us. Other children will not be as lucky as Violet and Harry were. And what about Peter? Do you really think that even he would return to this place?"

"You never know Albus, it would depend on how much Voldemort trust in Snape here." Remus said jerking his thumb over at the seething dark haired man. "If he doubts him even in the slightest, and considering the fact that he's the stepfather of the child-who-lived that's a good possibility. He may have talked his way around delivering Violet for now, but eventually he may have to, or quit spying. If Voldemort doubts in Severus here even slightly then its even more likely that he'll send in another agent to keep their eyes and ears open. He can also compare the information and see who's telling the truth."

Snape grimaced as he looked at the headmaster. "As much as it pains me to agree with the wolf here he has a point."

Dumbledore nodded before he looked at his former student. "Where are Sirus and James then Remus?"

"I told you sir they're at the Ministry."

"And what are they doing there?" McGonagall questioned. "I thought that they would have wanted to be here."

"Yes, well duty before pleasure and all that." Remus said shrugging. "They're going to be helping with the tracking of the known Death Eaters. I'll be out every once in a while to help them with that as well."

"Do those two even know what the word duty means?" Snape shot out venomously.

"Not now Snape," Remus said, "If you want to pick a fight with them do it on your own time not while I'm explaining things to the headmaster."

"Are you sure that this is the best way to do things?" Dumbledore questioned doubtfully, ignoring the men since Snape's insults allowed him to gather his thoughts and think about what it was that he wanted to say. "I believe that you would all be better off for the war with some of the missions that I had planned for you. I believe that James and Sirus were quiet good at gathering intelligence last time and I still think you would be of the most use to the war talking to the werewolf clans."

"I'm sorry headmaster, we didn't come to Europe to put ourselves under your command but to get a job done."

"But what about Peter though?" Lily questioned.

Remus rolled his eyes. "I don't see why you lot are so interested in that worm. If your wondering if I'm going to be hunting for him specifically though, then no. We'll keep an eye out for him though and make sure he pays for his crimes."

"I am glad to hear that you are not letting your tempers get the better of you over your old friend." Dumbledore said looking at his former student proudly. In time you may even be able to look at him again and feel his friendship again."

"Not quiet what we had in mind Albus." Remus said, as his voice took on a harder edge. "We fully intend to take the rat out, and knowing him he'll probably try to fight his way out since he'll be to scared to do anything else. We're just content to let him sweat it out until we get there. For his crimes against the pack he will pay." Remus said solemnly.

The old teacher frowned at the younger man. "Remus I'm worried about you. From the way that you are talking you are sounding quiet a bit like Greyback."

Remus chuckled dryly at that instead of getting angry like everyone had expected at the comparison. "Please headmaster, Greyback is a sick and angry person who's lost his sense of self within the wolf. I sometimes wonder what exactly it is that affected him like that. I've met several people whom think that he was either part of some werewolf experiment; he was abused somehow; locked away from the moon causing a type of lunar madness or a combination of all of them. Don't get me wrong I'll probably never be his friend, particularly since he thinks he's condemning the ones he bites to a life of being outcasts. As for my talk about pack that is just something I picked up at home."

"Home? I thought that Hogwarts was your home though Remus." McGonagall said sounding slightly hurt.

Remus smiled at that. "Hogwarts is a nice place professor, but it's not my home anymore. Like all birds we've gone and spread our wings. Maybe you and Hagrid should come and visit us sometime after this mess with Voldemort is over." The Ranger's eyes roved around the room as he saw how many people had flinched at the name.

"I would like that." The woman said with a grin.

"Good, now that we're done telling each other what we wanted can we get down to business?" The werewolf questioned. "I need to talk with Filch about some of the security features that I'm thinking about that we may or may not set up. I'll also have a few house elves here at the castle who will be doing some odd jobs so if you'll be sure to tell your head elf not to give them any duties unless they ask for them. If we catch anything in the security sweeps we'll be sure to alert you. Now I need to go and check on things so I'll be gone now." With that said the Ranger tipped his hat at them and then slipped out the office door.

Snape glared with loathing at the spot Remus had occupied. "Why did you allow the wolf to talk to you like that headmaster? Of all of those overbearing twats he probably owes you the most. Yet he acted as if you were nothing more than his old headmaster. Has he truly forgotten how much it is that he owes you?"

"I do not know Severus, I simply do not know." The headmaster shook his head in dismay as he tried to rethink his plans until he could get the Marauders to agree with him. He hoped that their selfish bullheadedness would pass quickly so that they could get to work. "I want you all to keep an eye on him though. With the way he was talking about Greyback he sounded almost as if he pitied him. If that is true it could be that Remus is on the verge of going feral." Dumbledore warned.

"Feral?" Sprout questioned.

"Yes a feral. Remus is much more wolf like than he was when he left here all those years ago. It could take a push in just the right direction to make him like Greyback." Albus explained to the witch.

"I don't know headmaster he seemed all right to me." Flitwick argued. "I think your looking for something that's simply not there. Perhaps even a reason to kick him out so that he'll do things your way if he has no place to go."

"Fillius I am not trying to cause trouble for Remus, I am merely concerned that he may be making dangerous choices is all." Dumbledore said in his defense. "And right now it is a dangerous time to be so careless with our choices. Hopefully after a few days back they will be willing to listen to reason though."

"Yes, well at least we know it will be hard to sneak around the halls the next few nights." Lily said with slight trace of amusement. "I mean with Filtch and Remus patrolling the halls for now it will be almost impossible to slip by without one of them noticing." The redhead reasoned with the other teachers.

Albus smiled at his teacher. "Ah Lily, it is good that you can find a silver lining in a situation."

"Of course headmaster. He's also a better person to have here than James." There were a few laughs at the idea of James Potter as a teacher in Hogwarts.

"Now if you'll all excuse me I really must get to the Ministry and see what it is that is going on with James and Sirus. If I get there in time I may stop them from setting off any pranks in the Ministers office. Lily I do need to ask you something so if you could wait." The others nodded in understanding and filed out of the room. Leaving Dumbledore and Lily alone in the room. The headmaster did not look forward to this conversation; he knew a fight might come of this. "I think that you and Violet should spend some time getting to know Harry." He told her bluntly and braced himself.

"Headmaster, you know very well that I don't have time for that, and you saw that group of children. Why not a one of them even looks like a real wizard or witch. They look more like they came out of an adventure novel or the muggle streets. My daughter will have very little in common with that kind of rabble."

"Then I suppose that you will have to find a way to better educate him then Lily." Dumbledore countered her. "You are a teacher Lily, so teach him about our world."

"Violet may want something for this." Lily said to the man.

She is getting some lessons from me this year Dumbledore said.

"And what do I get out of it?"

"I'll inform Gringotts of a transfer of gold because of some potions I contracted you to make since I am simply to busy to do them myself these days." Dumbledore said innocently, his eyes twinkling brightly.

"Done." Lily said with a bright smile, she then got up and walked out of the room.

Dumbledore sat in his chair for a moment and was lost in thought for a moment. He was curious about what it was that his former students were planning. He knew that if they hadn't all been so opposed to it that they would have all very easily been Slytherians. The three of them were a bit too sly for their own good. James Potter provided direction, Remus the know how, and Sirus the silver tongue, the three of them were simply a dangerous combination as teens and if Remus was any indication of them they had grown even deeper into their roles.

He pulled himself out of his chair, and made his way to the fireplace wondering if anyone would be convinced he was there as the supreme mugwump and not as the leader of the Order of the Phoenix. He briefly wished he had paid more attention to the memos he had been getting of late from the Ministry. He would now have to do some re-planning since the Marauders had tripped his original ideas up for now.

* * *

Banks stood back and watched as the students waved their wands and various items began to float out of the wagon and were returned to their original size. "Remember, your magic must work together." Banks reminded them as he watched the glaring match that the sixth and seventh years were giving each other. "If you can't learn how to make your magic work together here, then you'll be in quiet a jam later if you're ever trying to put magic into a certain area. De magic that be working things like wards and what not be more effective if dey are done by a team of people. Dat way dere is more strength in de layering of de wards. Take Hogwarts here for example. Dose founders dey worked as one and dere wards still be holdin today. Besides if you cannae learn how to be merging yer magic now, den you be sleeping outside tonight in dis wonderful weather." The man added with an evil grin. "De teachers will merely be using de wagon to sleep in."

The Cajun chuckled a bit, as this seemed to be enough to get the two groups to work together. He watched as the giant tent poles now started taking their positions the next was adding power to some of the runes that were carved into the poles and after that the poles came together and a covering wrapped itself around the poles. Banks watched as five of the students worked the wrapping around and secured it. Banks looked at the various emblems on the outside of the tent sparkled with hidden power and nodded. While it wasn't the very best job that he had seen it would do.

"All right go and get your gear and head to de dorms." Banks ordered, the teens nodded and grabbed their trunks and bags and went inside to find the dorms inside the giant teepee. Banks left his own gear for the moment and did a quick check on the classrooms.

Banks came back inside as he saw that the students were finishing moving in. Fox Cloud was currently walking up toward them. "How did de meeting go sir?"

"About as Remus theorized. The headmaster has forgotten how protective some teachers can be of their charges. I know not why the headmaster wanted us to leave the teaching of our students in the hands of his people." Fox Cloud looked over his shoulder at the famous school. "There is much here I do not understand, I fear that when I connect to the earth I will see much darkness."

"Be at peace mon ami, dis is a strange place for us all. We have gotten used to things done differently." Banks told his partner.

"This is true, but I fear that there is much more going on here than even I suspected. I have managed to keep our students out of the direct grasp of Dumbledore for now and safe from any persecution that they may face from being from a different culture."

"That is all you can be doing sometimes though non?"

"Yes it is." Remus said as he slipped up next to them. "All we can do now is teach and listen with our eyes and ears." The other two nodded.

"How did you get here so fast? Had I known your talk would have been so short I would have waited for you."

Remus smiled a bit sheepishly at this. "Knowing the grounds and secret passages used to be an old hobby of mine Fox Cloud it actually only took me about half the amount of time that it took you.

Fox Cloud chuckled. "I pity McGonagall for having to deal with you and your friends Remus."

"Well we weren't exactly the poster children for angels." Remus admitted.

"Yes, well I suppose not. Back to the matter at hand though I fear that the headmaster may become a problem. He has the mind of the queen bee I fear. He sees all as drones warriors or other such agents for him to use as he pleases. Like the Queen Bee he directs all as he thinks they should."

"Interesting way of saying that," Remus said. "I've heard Albus compared to a chess master and and as a Spider, but never as a queen bee. I would love to speculate more on this, but we really do need to charge the wards and get to bed."

"Good point Ranger Lupin." Fox Cloud said as he raised his hand and a coup stick came flying out of his medicine bag that he wore at his side. He raised the magical item and each of the sparkling pictures on the teepee glowed briefly for a moment as the protective wards activated.

"That style of wards never ceases to amaze me." Remus said with a shake of his head.

Fox Cloud looked at the totems for a moment in confusion. "They are not as powerful as they should be. The poles are not aligned correctly. For this night it should serve our purposes but tomorrow I want them to set the tent up again. Before any of them try to slip off into the forest."

"Yes sir." The two said, knowing that the task of keeping an eye on the students to make sure that they did as they were told would fall to them.

"How is Harry holding up Ranger Lupin? I know that he was hesitant to come."

"He's doing find sir, at least as far as I can tell." Remus sighed and rolled his eyes. "He's a sixteen year old boy who doesn't talk much about his emotions so who knows what he really feels about things."

"Good point, and what of Violet? What do you think of the child-who-lived?"

The Ranger let out a breath of air as he gathered his thoughts on that subject. "She has obviously been raised as the daughter of Lily and Severus and as the next Dumbledore judging by the way she was keeping a mini court at the Gryffindor table. It was kind of weird actually. She seemed a bit cold though from what little I did see of her."

"Perhaps it is just a mask, and de girl dat you once sang lullabies to is still in dere somewhere Lupin." Banks said, triying to comfort the man.

"Yes, give the girl time so that we can learn who she truly is." Fox Cloud said in agreement. "If you judge her now, you may not know what it is that lies beneath the surface."

"I'll do my best, but she didn't even seem to know who it is that I was." Remus said sadly. "I thought that Lily would have at least told her about us." He added to them.

"We shall have to wait and see, and if she hasn't been told perhaps you can learn about each other."

"Maybe. Remus said a little hesitantly. "If she wants to even bother with knowing a werewolf that is. Snape did raise her, and he may have given her some of his werewolf phobia. That also doesn't include the fact that Snape is really well known for carrying a grudge."

"Do not worry about things that you cannot control for now." Fox Cloud told the Ranger.

"Yes sir." Remus said, as he then went and grabbed his gear. He looked longingly to the woods as if he wanted to shift and then head into the woods and leave his doubts behind for the night.

* * *

The Titans were all lying in the sixth year boys dorm talking a bit before they went to bed. "So, what did the rest of you think of this place? I mean despite the fact that they don't know how to make Southwestern food that is."

"Could have been worse, they could of tried and made steaks or something. Just imagine what they would have done to the meat?" Most of the boys shuddered at that thought.

"It wouldn't have been that bad, if you guys would just learn how to eat cooked meat. Seriously sometimes I swear all you guys do is warm the meat up."

"Not our fault that you girls are such picky eaters and don't know what's good." One of the boys shot back playfully.

"You mean actually having our food all the way cooked is wrong? One of the girls deadpanned. "And here I thought there were saftey laws that said that was the right thing to do."

"Can we please not have this conversation again?" Wiley asked them all pleadingly. "I'm much to tired to judge another duel right now. I thought we were discussing the castle anyways."

"All right." Cody said grudgingly.

"Gotta admit, the place is pretty impressive. I mean seriously gold plates? What do they think this is sleeping beauty?"

"So did any of you actually get to talk to Violet?" Harry asked with interest. "I never even saw her."

"Not real sure what it is that she looks like man." Rocky said apologetically. "I was pretty hungry when we sat down anyways."

"How about you girls, did any of you meet her?" He asked them hopefully.

"Tried to." Jess said scowling in annoyance. "She was to busy with her friends to bother talking to us though and I wasn't going to wait around for her to realize I was there so I talked some other people."

"Oh." Was all Harry could say to that."

"Come on buddy, if she wants to play the snob game let her. Its not like snobs really impress us anyways." Grizz told his friend.

"Si my amigo, don't let her get to you. "Wiley said nodding his head in agreement."

"Anyways, maybe she just didn't know what to say to you." Jenna tried. "Cause this has to be hard for her as well you know."

Harry nodded reluctantly as he pulled a toothpick out of the hatband of his Stetson. "I guess, but what about my birth mom? Did she even look at me?"

His friends gave weak smiles and opened their mouths to lie but Harry looked them each in the eye and they quickly closed their mouths before they were caught lying. "Maybe she wanted to talk to the Marauders first. You know kind of get to know you first." Moonshine tried. "Anyways, I think your uncle there was a bit of a surprise for her as well. She seemed shocked, and that guy in black nearly drew his wand when he realized who he was."

Harry looked up at this. "Greasy hair, hooked nose, a scowl that never left his face and beady eyes?" He questioned.

"Yeah that was him." Moonshine said.

Wiley muttered to himself. _"Loco gringo. _You do realize that was Potion Master Severus Snape right? As is the leading authority and possibly the best in the field when it comes to truth serums. Most law enforcement agencies have to wait for months to get their hands on some of his stock. I believe that a case of his stock is supposed to be worth about 150 gold eagles at least." The Hispanic boy told his friend.

"He's also Jag's stepfather Wiley." Grizz told his friend. "You do remember that little tidbit about him as well right? You remember what else Padfoot told us about the overgrown snake?"

"Well yeah sure." Wiley said. "He told us to be careful trusting in him and that he knows hold a grudge. That doesn't mean that I can't admire the man for his skills as a brewer though."

Harry twirled the toothpick in his mouth for a moment. "Just remember than buddy we don't want you to get hurt."

"Si my friend I will be mucho grande careful." The other boy promised.

"Good." The others said.

* * *

Hermione sighed as she lay down in her bed. Violet and her friends were already planning on how to ensnare the American boys into dates with them. The fact that they felt that such planning had to be done here was annoying though.

"Did you see those two big ones?" Lavender's voice questioned.

"Kind of hard not to." Violet returned.

"Think there's any brains amongst them?" Parvarti asked

"Who cares, besides once Violet lets loose on them its not like they are going to have a lot of schoolwork to worry about that's their own."

"True, but if you get the smart ones interested then you can have them do your homework." Parvarti pointed out to her companions.

"So which one do you think was your brother?" Ginny asked with interest. The other girls perked up at this. Dating the brother of the Child-Who-Lived could be helpful on the social ladder.

"Who cares." Violet said with an indifferent tone of voice. "Sooner or later he'll make himself known and be sure to work with me when I go to destroy You-Know-Who."

Hermione growled in annoyance as she cast silencing charms on the bed and laid down. Her own thoughts were more on the fact that Gryffindor would be raising slightly on the point scale this month since Terry had lost the bet. Seriously, he had bet thunderbirds were going to drop them all off. While Thunderbirds were well known for living in the Southwest they were not pack animals that could be used whenever someone felt like it.

* * *

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	5. Chapter 5

I apologize for how long this took but I lost my flashdrive and had to rebuild this chapter from what I had left of my notes I also got distracred writing story ideas in my Backburner series for BTVS crossovers. That and there was college and work to. Also I hate those author notes saying I have not forgotten this story yadda yadda. So I didn't write one.

* * *

James and Sirus scowled as they stalked out of the meeting room. The two of them had just met with the Minister, his cabinet members, a few career politicians that shouldn't have even been there and some members of the Wizengot. The various people in the room had all tried in some way or other to convince the two of them to either bribe or put their family names behind some crazy idea or other that would have played into the political games of who knows whom. Their guide trailed along behind them seemingly oblivious to the bad moods of his charges. The two Texas Rangers were just barely holding onto their tempers at the blatant use of power games that had been tried on them. Their patience and tolerance for such games by paper pushers had long since faded before they had even left Britain in the last war.

"Tell me why we agreed to come over here again?" James grumbled as his hands twitched toward his guns as he saw purebloods that should have at least been questioned easily strutting around as if they owned the place.

"Cause it's the only way that we could get involved in this war officially." Sirus answered his friend through gritted teeth. "This way we have the best chance of getting our hands on that low-life that betrayed us for power and sold your family out to that scum bucket Voldemort."

"Right." James said grimly nodding his head in agreement. "I also need to finish up the job that my parents and in-laws started up all of those years ago with that murderer."

"Too right buddy." Sirus said clapping his friend on the back causing a small cloud of dust to rise off his jacket. The two Rangers ignored the various Ministry flunkies that looked down on them as they walked by. The two Rangers no longer cared what these British witches and wizards thought of them as long as they were allowed to do their jobs both personal and Ranger wise.

"Sirus! James!" A large baritone voice called out to them merrily.

The two Rangers looked up and nodded to Kingsly Shakleboat heading their way. The dark skinned man had been a fellow Gryffindor with them about a year or so beneath them. They had occasionally helped the guy with his homework assignments both at Hogwarts and Auror training. "How you doing Shack?" Sirus asked in greeting as they shook hands.

"Better than the two of you judging by your clothing." The man said with a slight frown as he looked at the beaten muggle clothes that the pair were wearing. They were nice and all the big man thought, but they appeared to be a bit rougher looking than most of the muggle clothes that he was used to seeing.

"Don't start on us Shakelboat." James warned the slightly younger man. "We like you a lot, so we're not going to say anything if you drop it right now."

"Yeah, besides these happen to be our uniforms for where we work." Sirus added with pride. "Just cause we're here doesn't mean that we're going to dress how you lot think that we should and all you know?" He said this loud enough so that anyone listening in on them would hear what he had to say. The three men noticed a number of scowls around them as it was said from the various wizards.

"Really those are your uniforms?" Kingsly asked disbelievingly as he looked the pair over. "You travel a lot with muggles in the states?" He asked curiously.

"Nah, we just happen to do al lot of work in muggle areas." James answered

"Not to mention our branch is part of an elite group of law enforcement." Sirus added with a grin.

"We also do quiet a bit of work with other muggle law enforcement agencies. So it helps if we can mingle with the various people with out to many problems." James added, before his friend had them as CIA or something.

"Yeah, we're a kind of go between regular wizard and muggle law enforcement agencies."

"Since we can go between both worlds it gives us a bit of authority, though we do try and stay in our own area for the most part." James continued, while Sirus began proudly polishing the star on his chest.

The dark skinned wizard nodded at them a little bit confused and skeptical. "If you say so." He said in a non-committal way shrugging at the pair. "Now I have to go. The Minister wants me to give him a report on a muggle security project that he has me on."

"Muggle security?"

"He's guarding the Prime Minister, remember Sirus." James answered.

"How did you know that?" Kingsly said in a surprised whisper. "That's suppose to be a secret."

"Only a handful of muggle projects that the Ministry would want to have right now Shack. Guarding the Royal Family and the Prime Minister are the number ones of those." James explained to the man.

"That and we were debriefed about it earlier." Sirus said with a grin.

"Oh." Kingsly said surprised that the pair knew about his undercover guard position. The Magical guardsmen positions were supposed to be one of the better-kept secrets in the Ministry. He had never even heard of the position until he had been given the position and he was a senior Auror. "How did you know about it again?" He asked wanting to make sure he had heard them right.

"It was in our debriefing." The two men echoed in tandem with smirks on their faces.

"We have some of the better intelligence gathering methods as Texas Rangers." Sirus boasted to the wizard while their guide just spluttered in disbelief as the pair of American styled Aurors easily broke through the undercover agent's position.

Kingsly sighed and nodded at the pair. "Um well I have to go make my report now." The Auror said as he slipped past the pair. "Maybe we can get together later on and we can talk some more later." He suggested at them over his shoulder.

"Maybe Shack." Sirus said as the man fled from them.

The two men snickered a bit. "Come on Red." James said draping his arm over their guides neck and steering him towards the elevators. "Guess we'll have to get used to calling these things lifts again." James said as they waited.

"Good, it takes less time to say that way." Sirus said with a grin. "Though it will probably mean that we'll be in for some good jokes when we get back." He noted.

The red head managed to gather himself back up and quickly shrugged James's arm off of him and stuck his nose up in the air just as the lift opened up for them. The two men rolled their eyes as they followed after their guide who had the whole superior pureblood attitude that almost everyone in the Ministry seemed to have. A pureblood with a stick so far up his butt that it was holding his nose in the air was not really something that they wanted to deal with. The fact that the kid was the epitome of a low ranking pureblood yes man who took himself and his job way to seriously didn't help all that much either. If the pair weren't trying so hard to be on such good behavior they probably would have pranked the kid already. The kid practically had a target painted on his back with that attitude of his.

Their guide took them to the D.M.L.E department where he led the pair to a small office in the back where most of the high-ranking senior Aurors had small offices of some kind, instead of the cubicles that the other aurors had. "I trust that this office will suit you, er people fine while you're with us?" The redhead asked arrogantly. "You will find that we have the very best in wizarding items to hunt down dark witches and wizards here. If you need something do not be afraid to ask." He continued on pompously.

"Yeah this will work." James said carelessly cutting the boy off before he could get started on any kind of speech like lecture on how this was the very best place ever.

"Thanks for the help kid." Sirus said as the two began going through the files that the Ministry had given them effectively dismissing the young man. They only had a day or so to go through all of the various files before they began to deal with helping out with the various hunts. It was close to dinnertime, but they had a lot of reading to do before they were done and would probably end up eating something from a restaurant. The two Texas Rangers sighed as they thought of the Hogwarts feast that they had most likely missed because they were stuck reading paperwork and Remus had probably enjoyed the feast in which he could enjoy some of their old favorite dishes with great relish.

The two had been working for a few hours and it was late when Dumbledore showed up at their office. "James, Sirus." The old man greeted his former students cheerfully as he casually strode through the doors to their office. The elder wizard eyed his rebellious students over carefully as he entered.

"Headmaster." The two Rangers greeted, slightly surprised that the old man would be down here they had been expecting somehow he would meet them somewhere not confront them like this.

"It's good to see the two of you." Dumbledore said jovially. "It does warm my old heart to see that the two of you have finally returned to Britain. Why with Harry and Remus at Hogwarts it's almost like destiny has brought us all together again. Of course what that destiny is only time will tell." The two Marauders nodded in agreement.

All three men waited to see if someone would use that opening to discuss Harry but nothing was said by any of them and Dumbledore continued as if nothing had happened. "There has been quiet a bit less laughter on our side of the world since you three decided to leave. Perhaps with your help we can once again find something to laugh about."

"Maybe sir." Sirus drawled out with a mixture of pureblood superiority colored with a bit of a southern drawl. "At the moment though we need to focus on training the Aurors here up to the point where they can actually catch a Dark Witch or Wizard and not think it's a great accomplishment to catch a muggle baiter or something else just as weak with pathetic pranks."

"True." James said with agreement taking advantage of the distraction to stretch as he pulled his hat off and ran his hand through his hair mussing it up even more than it already was. "I mean seriously, if your going to pull a prank and get arrested for it you might as well make sure it's a really good one."

Dumbledore chuckled at the response that James gave to his friend. Some things never changed it seemed. The headmaster couldn't help but wonder just what it was that these two would think of Fred and George Weasly. "I am afraid that not everybody can be the gifted professional pranksters that your group was my dear rascals. I swear you learned more when you were pulling your pranks than you ever did in some of your classes after your second year."

"If they can't compete then they shouldn't bother. They give real pranksters like us a bad name." Sirus said in a fair impression of Mad-Eye Moody or Professor McGonagall when they were talking about their specific arts that they were masters in.

Dumbledore looked at the Rangers and gave them one of his best grandfatherly smiles. "Although Sirus, it should be a good thing when one considers that catching low level pranksters is all that the Aurors have to worry about. I understand that you have to deal with dark lords every five years or so in the states."

"When you consider the size of the U.S to the combination of England and Scotland we actually are about even in fact the old magic's in Britain make some of your Dark Lords worse because of the larger history of dark magic users that it has."

"That doesn't mean that you are really all that much safer though." Dumbledore countered his student. "It merely means that you have a more dangerous problem than you think. As you said you have more ground and less history of Dark Magic."

"I don't know, cause of who we are we have to deal with just about every style of magic in the world." Sirus said. "I mean those Oriental countries know some seriously nasty fire and concealment spells and some scary potions, that doesn't even go into some of those Chi spells that some of them can do. As for the Middle East, they have some serious wind warding spells that in a desert could kill you when they make the sand attack you. I understand that they have a safe house somewhere in the Arizona, California desert."

"I see." Dumbledore said it would appear that the Marauders had gotten a most interesting rounding in spell knowledge. Such a knowledge could come in handy in combating the Dark. "I don't suppose that you could tell me what you thought of the current administration now though?" Dumbledore questioned the pair.

The two men glanced at the headmaster. "We're you even invited to the meeting headmaster?" Sirus asked curiously. "According to what we saw of the people there quiet a number of the current people in power were there. Personally we were kind of surprised that you weren't there headmaster. We don't want to be telling people that we shouldn't."

"Yes, of course I do." Dumbledore said as he waved his wand and his Mugwump papers appeared in his hand. "It seems that the administration wanted a chance to talk with you before I did." Dumbledore told the young men as he made his papers vanish. He shook his head sadly as he peered at them over his half moon glasses. "I fear that the Ministry is not much longer to last at the rate that they are currently going if they continue to play these power games during these trying times. Had I known that the two of you were going to be here I would have either met you or arranged for a meeting later on. Something that I hope that we can still do I might add. I was led to believe that it was just a pair of bureaucrat's, paper warriors I believe is what you call them. Since I was led to understand that was the type coming to give a supposedly fresh perspective on the problems we are currently dealing with I thought meeting with the members of the other school more important."

"Understandable, not like we would blame you for looking for a good excuse to get away from some PapWar specialists. I suppose we should consider it a good thing that you were there to see to the S.W's needs though."

"To true and with how rarely we allow other schools to visit us it is good for public relations. I am glad to know that Harry was willing to come here with the rest of his friends. I am sure that others will agree that it is past time that the twins learned a bit about the different worlds that they both come from." The headmaster was glad that his involvement in arranging the American school to come to a minimum. "So, did anything interesting occur in the first meeting?"

"Usual lot of bribe attempts, though they were more interested in us bribing them than in offering us anything. If it weren't for the fact that we were half expecting it we would have reported them all already to someone."

"I see, anything else?" He questioned them eagerly.

"Not so much really, just them finally agreeing to treat this as an ultimate high-level threat. Even so it took quiet a bit of talking to get them to agree to something as simple as that."

"Well you know how it is to admit that there is a problem is one of the hardest things to do in the world and Rufus happens to be a particularly proud individual." Dumbledore tried to console the pair.

"Yeah we noticed that, and we did finally got what we wanted so we can treat this area like we would any other area back at home and how to deal with the individuals that are Death Eaters or just as bad." Sirus said with a grin. "I think the bunch of them were a bit miffed that we didn't offer them anything for doing the right thing though." He added with glee.

"Really? I am afraid I am not completely clear on threat levels. What does that one mean anyways?"

"I suggest you read the various laws and by laws to make yourself completely familiar with the conditions that the Ministry agreed to sir." James told the man with a grin.

"You do realize that such a choice as assessing the threat level needs at least a majority vote from the Wizengott." Dumbledore chided the pair.

"Which is why we were even more surprised that you weren't there since a number of the Wizengott were. The Minister arranged a vote right then and there. Was like pulling teeth from an angry dog to get them to all agree and I'm sure that he added in a few threats to get what he wanted as well." James said continuing to grin at the headmaster.

"I see," Dumbledore said wondering just what it was that these two hot-headed young pranksters with badges had done this time. "I am pleased that you boys were able to find lives for yourselves where you're happy despite all of our disagreements." He said changing the subject.

The two men didn't say anything on this despite the fact that it now looked as if the headmaster was casually searching for information on Harry or them. Neither of the men felt like now was the time to bring up the fact that they had never officially come back because of the headmasters opinion of Harry. An opinion that had helped drive a wedge between Lily and James. "I suppose that you'll want to help out in the war effort much as you did the last time around. I can think of several things that you can help us out with that could be very beneficial. We will have to try and work around that busy schedule of yours as well though." The man said with a smile

The two Rangers didn't say anything for a moment before James finally answered their old teacher. "Very well headmaster, we'll listen to what it is that you have to say." He answered as he regarded the man. "Just remember though, that we can't do a lot of the crazy stunts that you might hope for anymore. We aren't the kids that you had helping you last time. '_Nor are we going to let you people take the credit for our work.'_ The two thought in annoyance at the man.

Dumbledore nodded hiding his surprise at the almost hesitant agreement that they had given and it had seemed almost reluctant at that. The Marauders that he had remembered had been blindly loyal to him and his vision of the wizard world and would have done whatever he had asked of them. True there had been some regrettable times that they had taken those things a bit too far, but he had managed to use most of those instances to his advantage. The fact that none of the three were that willing to commit themselves to the fight and cause worried him quiet a bit. It appeared that he would have to watch the entire group carefully before he could decide if he could trust them to do the jobs that needed to be done. He hoped that those crazy Americans hadn't completely altered the way that some of what used to be his best people acted he was pretty sure that he would need them before the war was over.

"Very well, I shall owl you the next time the old crowd get together and we'll see what it is that you can do to help us." The old man said gravely.

"Of course headmaster." The two said, glad that they were not going to get involved in a real verbal seek and find game with the old man. The two Marauders were under no illusions; the headmaster would have found something out from them if he stayed much longer. The two looked at each other wondering what it was that the headmaster had wanted before they returned to their work.

* * *

Professor Lily Evans-Snape looked up and smiled at her daughter as she came into her parent's quarters. Violet looked a bit cross this morning she noted and wondered what it was that had angered her child this time around. She would readily admit that her daughter was somewhat big headed, arrogant, and proud. Considering just who her birth father was though she thought that she had done a good job of raising the child. _'Besides unlike James Potter, Violet had every right to feel that way though.'_ The woman thought to herself. After all it was Violet who had defeated the Dark Lord. True no one quiet understood just how it was that the girl had managed to deflect the supposedly unstoppable curse all those years ago. Even today there was still quiet a bit of musing in places like the Department of Mysteries on how she might have managed to pull that off. The various theories went all the way from accidental magic to a combination of her own parents weakening the Dark Lord enough for the last bits of the house wards and emotion based magic from her in-laws to complete the job. None was sure though and there was no real way to test the theories out without killing several people.

The red headed woman shook her head and focused on her daughter. "I'm sorry dear, I'm afraid that my mind was wandering." Lily apologized to the girl before her. "How's it feel to be back home in Hogwarts with all of your various friends now?" She questioned with interest.

"It's alright." Violet said shrugging. Some of the magic of being around the castle had bled off for her over the years since she had been in and out of the school for most of her life. "Granger is being a bit difficult, but I'll deal with her. She'll see things from the headmaster's side of things." Violet told her mother dutifully.

Lily nodded her head in understanding of her daughter. The Granger girl was a bit of a nuisance at times. However, there were also times that she wished that her daughter was more like the bushy haired girl and less like James Potter. Granger was far more gifted in many of the things that were taught at Hogwarts soaking up all of the various lessons like a sponge. The only real fault that the woman had with the girl was that sometimes she came across as somewhat superior to most of the people around her. Still everyone was allowed their faults she supposed. It was what allowed a person to know that they were human.

"Dear, I have some news that you may not like all that much." The teacher warned her daughter. "It's a job from Dumbledore though, and has to be done."

"Really I doubt it can be that bad mum. I mean really do you think it could be worse than trying to cozy up to Granger?" Violet asked her mother with a twirl of her hair. "Besides if Dumbledore thinks that it's important then it most likely is." She answered dutifully.

"Good, I'm glad you think that dear because your task will be to help me in dealing with your brother."

Violet looked at her mother in disbelief. "You want **me **to deal with him and his friends? They're nothing but a lot of country bumpkins." She declared in annoyance, crossing her arms stubbornly. "You know very well that I want nothing to do with him. They raise horses mother. What kind of person does something like that? Only those of lesser status would even bother to do something so degrading as raising animals. Which means that he probably isn't all that powerful."

"Be nice Violet." Lily warned. "They may have special feeling for those animals, besides everyone has their place in the world and if you take one out the rest could change in ways without you being ready for it."

"If you say so mum." The girl said doubtfully.

"I am aware that you have reasons to dislike him. What with him making your father and his friends leave and all." Lily said, as she gave her daughter a comforting look. "However Dumbledore feels as if we should try and make your brother feel as if he is welcome. You don't want to disappoint the headmaster now do you?" Lily asked her daughter curiously.

The girl looked sullen, but nodded her head in agreement with her mother. "Fine, but I don't have to like it." She grumbled stubbornly. "Where's dad?" She asked changing the subject.

"He should be around somewhere. You may want to check the potions lab though. I think that he is working on a couple of special truth potions just in case he needs them. I would suggest you be careful around him and give him a few days. With Potter and his friends around he is likely to be extremely edgy for a while."

Violet snorted at her mother's warning. The dislike that her father felt for James Potter and his group of friends was still talked about to this day. It was almost legendary, with her mother and some of the older teachers who had been around back then. The Marauders had been a bunch of big headed, arrogant pranksters who had some of the most vicious ideas as to what it was that they thought was amusing. She was sure that her brother was cut from the same cloth though, and would have to be careful and watch her step as she was not all that interested in becoming a victim to some malicious, idiotic idea of a prank. She was much like her parents that had raised her, in the respect that she did not overly approve of pranks. She saw the things as wastes of times she would much rather face an opponent head on than become a stinging annoyance like the Marauders and Weasley twins were. She had more self respect than that.

"Come on." Lily said breaking her daughter out of her musings, "It's almost breakfast time."

* * *

Remus blinked tiredly as he accepted a cup of coffee from Fox Cloud. The old chief smirked at the werewolf Ranger. He knew that the younger wizard had been restless all night by being back in the place that he had practically grown up in. The werewolf however was no longer the bright eyed youth that he had been when he had walked the halls of Hogwarts and wandered the grounds. While he still held a great respect for Europe's favorite wizard there were parts of him that were now wary of the man as he had seen firsthand how willing the man was to sacrifice people if he did not think them of any real worth. No, he would not blindly follow a person again; he had learned his lesson from that. He had also seen enough things like the Klu Klux clan and wannabe Nazi's, to see the disturbing similarity to European Purebloods. The War Chief was just sorry that one who had once been so innocent was now like he was.

"Are they up yet?" Remus questioned, breaking the Assistant headmaster's musings.

The Indian shook his head in the negative. "Only the twins from 6th year are up and about." He told his two teachers as Jean-Paul joined them. "And they are only up because they know better than to be slacking in their physical training."

"Well I happen to want to get some breakfast sometime this morning, so I suppose that one of us should get up and get them up."

"Yes, but who wants that honor?" The war chief questioned, as he waved his hand over the fire and watched calmly as the flames shot up in the air for a moment and changed from an orange like color to a green and blue color before settling back down. "The coffee is now ready," he added off handedly.

"I'll be the one to do it," the Cajun said, as he reached into his pocket and pulled out some pellets.

"Should I even ask?" Remus questioned, as he looked at the items curiously.

"Probably not." The Cajun said as he tossed the items toward the open tent flaps. A cracking sound came from within the tents, as the pellets cracked open, and the sound of animals at their loudest came roaring back at them. "Little something I made the last time I went to the zoo." The wizard explained with a grin.

Remus smiled at the man. "You'll have to show me how you did that it has certain possibilities that I would dearly love to use."

"As long as you don't use it on any people." The man said. "It has a tendency to give people laryngitis making it somewhat of a pain to use."

"It does?" Remus said with a smile. "Just how long does it last?" Plans of what he could do to James and Sirus with something like that. He could manipulate where their voices went and they would have to deal with the problem of being unable to talk at all. It would be a great payback spell.

"It is not hard; perhaps I will teach it to you later." The Cajun said with a smile, as they watched the various teens come stumbling out of the two tents. As they were all coming out Casey and Jenna were joking and laughing as they came around the corner.

"You want clue us in on what is freaking funny?" One of the seventh years grumbled as he shrugged into his duster.

"Easy there man, let's not start something right now, particularly before you've gone and had any coffee." One of the other seventh years said dragging his friend off towards the waiting coffee pot.

"Yes, get a drink after that you can all get your gear out of the tent and take it down and set it back up since you failed to set it up correctly." Fox Cloud commented to his students as he sipped out of his own mug. Several of the boys winced as they knew that the man would in his own ways make some of their lessons to be hell because of the failure to set the tent up correctly the first time.

"I suppose this means that any exploring we would want to do will have to wait until after breakfast then." Sara commented in annoyance as she gazed longingly toward the sky.

"Indeed it does, and you have no one but yourselves to blame for failing to set the tents up correctly." The old Indian sternly told them. The students all nodded as they finished or dumped the last of their drinks and repacked their things so that they could pull them out. Once that was done the tent was taken down and under the watchful eye of Fox Cloud the tents were placed in their true forms. Remus stood by and watched them all, making sure that none of them thought that now would be a good time to slip away and explore. That was the problem with having a large number of various shape shifting teenagers, they were more interested in letting their curiosity get the better of them. Remus had a personal experience with all of the dangers of the Forbidden Forest though. He knew very well that ordinary animals had very little hope of surviving in the forest for very long. There were too many dangers like threstrals, sphinxes and acromantulas that could eat them for lunch.

Fox Cloud waited until they had reset the tent to his satisfaction before he drew a rattler from a pouch he kept in a bag at his waist. The rattle was a turtle shell with various Indian runes painted on it. The old Indian began to shake the rattle and chant doing a small walk around each of the tents three times. Each time he went around one of the tents the various pictures that were on the outside flashed with color for a moment as the protections gathered the required strength needed from the spell work. The old Indian finally finished his chanting and nodded as he felt the protections that his spells had woven around the tents. From the towers of the castle that was across the lake there were a few people who were watching the American wizards go about their duties. Dumbledore himself watched from his tower office and frowned slightly as he felt the wards that the tent had created. It was as if someone had created a bubble of protection within his own wards. The wards were powerful from what he could feel but they were not anything that he could not fairly easily manage to take down with a bit of work. His main problem would come from the fact that he did not recognize the type of wards that he was feeling. This would bear watching as there was obviously a well of knowledge within the old War Chief. Perhaps he would do well to tap into it before he decided to cast him aside.

Remus looked toward Harry and his friends with a tilt of his head the werewolf nodded toward the hut and paddock where the Widow Makers were being held Harry nodded and understanding and with a wave of his hands he had gathered Hosea, Sara, and Colton's attention and the four headed out to deal with the animals. The three teachers led the rest of the class towards the castle so that they could get some breakfast. The Ranger was slightly surprised when they were met at the doors of the great hall by none other than Lily Snape and her daughter.

"Professor," Remus carefully greeted, hiding his emotions from his former friend.

"Ranger Lupin," Lily returned with a strained smile. The witch had obviously gotten over her surprise at the fact that her former housemate had returned to the halls of Hogwart's.

"Did you need something professor?" He questioned while Fox Cloud and Jean-Paul escorted the other students into the Great Hall.

"Actually, I was looking for Harry." The witch stated while giving off a smile. "I was thinking that since he's here that the three of us could get together for a picnic and get to know each other."

"I see," Remus blandly returned. "Is it a family only get together?" He questioned her curiously.

Lily looked a bit indecisive at this question, as she didn't really think that her daughter could be overly civil if she had to deal with any of the Marauders or an American plus her brother at the moment. Still the boy might not agree to come if she said no. "Well I was hoping to get to know you better first Harry."

"My grandpa says that the best way to know someone is to know who their friends are." Sara said to Lily from where she had crept up to them. "Perhaps you will learn more about Harry if he has someone he trusts there with him?" Lily grudgingly nodded at that, as there wasn't much that she could say against that.

"And just who is your grandfather?" Violet questioned with a bit of a challenge. This girl was making things difficult for them she needed to know just where she rated.

Sara smirked in amusement at the girl who thought that she could intimidate her. "My grandfather is the head of the magical side of the Texas Rangers. He's also one of their most decorated officers." Violet flushed as she realized that she was talking to someone with power. It was almost as bad as attacking Susan Bones. She only hoped that this girl had a better fashion sense than the boots and jeans she was currently sporting. Didn't the girl know that robes were so much better than muggle clothes?

"Ah here comes some more of them." Remus said with a smirk as the other members of the Titans that had been on horse duty appeared around a corner. The three boys stopped as they saw Sara and Violet facing off with Lily and Remus looking on.

Lily's attention was taken away from her daughter and the political blunder that she had just made to gaze at the boy she had abandoned years ago. "Hello Harry, it's a pleasure to see you again." She said as her eyes drank in all of his features.

Harry watched her and merely nodded and grunted at her in return. The boy had a build that was similar to James though he was a bit more muscular than James had been. He had sparkling green eyes that were like hers used to be before they had taken on their dulled and hardened edge from living through a war. A black hat cast a shadow over part of his face and a toothpick hung from his lips similar to the way that Mundugus filthy cigarettes did. "I am glad that you finally decided to come to Hogwarts," Lily continued, "the Potter family has been coming to Hogwarts ever since it's founding over a thousand years ago."

"Maybe Professor, but I'm a Texas boy now and I'll be glad when we get back to the South West again where we belong." Harry returned to the woman.

Lily frowned at his loyalty to his school for a moment before nodding. "To each their own I suppose, but I really think that you should give Hogwarts a chance before you discount it. The castle may surprise you."

"Possibly." The boy agreed with skepticism.

"Yes, well this is your sister Violet I'm sure you've heard about her." Lily said distracting the two girls that were looking each other over.

"Not really no," Harry answered shrugging, "I'm really not all that up to date on foreign affairs and celebrities. Dad and Remus don't let us read very many of those books on that night either. They say that there's too much room for speculation for there to be a decent opinion though they would love for me to hear Dumbledore's opinion on it. They would rather that I form my own opinions, than blindly follow a book that was written without all of the facts."

Lily reluctantly nodded in agreement seeing little wrong with that kind of thinking. She was a bit insulted that Violet's story was considered just some foreign affair in America though. Didn't they know that if Violet hadn't stopped the Dark Lord that he most likely would have started on the rest of the world?

"So, will you be joining us for lunch?" Lily questioned extending her offer to her son.

"Huh?"

"I thought that we could have a picnic and get to know each other better." The witch explained to her son before Remus or the girl could stop her.

"Um, maybe we should wait for that kind of family bonding." Harry said looking slightly nervous his eyes darting to Remus for help.

"Nonsense Harry, you should do this." Sara said, "just have one of us should be there though if things go bad though."

"Do you mind?" Harry questioned Lily.

Lily sighed. "Of course not, in fact why don't you both invite a friend to come with us. That way you can both get to know a bit about each other."

"I think I can agree with that plan." Violet quickly said in agreement.

"Good."

"Why don't ya'll go and get some food?" Remus told the group, "I have some things I need to discuss with the professor." The teens nodded and slipped through the door, a look from her mother had Violet following after them. Remus looked the redhead in the eye for a moment. "So, what do you go by here?"

"What?" Lily said the question throwing her off balance as she had been expecting something about why she wanted to spend time with Harry now after all this time.

"Having two Snape's must make it somewhat tricky, and I was wondering how to best address you?" Remus explained to her. "I wouldn't want to confuse your students by calling you something other than what I should. Particularly after I made a point of Dumbledore and the rest of the school knowing my title. Wouldn't want to appear rude now would I?"

"Professor or Mrs. Snape will do Ranger Lupin, if it's formal setting though it's Mistress Snape."

"Just Mistress?" Remus queried with interest, "So you have more than one mastery then?"

"Yes I have a Potion Mastery and a Charms Mastery," the witch proudly explained.

"Nice to know." The werewolf said, "Shall we?" He questioned jerking his thumb at the doors. Lily nodded and followed him in. As they moved close together for a moment Remus growled. "Use him and hurt him and not even the fact that we all loved you in our own way will protect you from us." Lily nodded stiffly pretending to be unaffected by the threat that a man that had once been a dear friend had just given her.

* * *

Harry and his friends joined the rest of South West sixth years all of them were doing their best to ignore the stares and whispers that they were receiving. Harry in particular was merely keeping his head down and mumbling answers to questions. The muggleborns seemed to be more knowledgeable about where they had come from. Dean Thomas was asking a number of questions to Jake.

"Well this is awkward," Rachel commented as she glanced around the room nervously. They had all been warned that the British wizarding world had many of the prejudices against werewolves that a number of other countries did. The USA and Canada were some of the few countries that didn't want to pretty much outlaw being werewolves. Even so there were still some people that made life difficult for them.

"Don't get worried now Loupa, we knew that something like this was likely to happen the minute that we walked into this place." Colton told his friend with an encouraging grin, "I mean really we have the brother of the Child-Who-Lived, with such a legend for a family member can you blame people wanting to get to know him? Maybe they wonder if in his own way he just as much skill and potential."

"There's also the fact that we're Americans and our clothing does make us stick out in this place." Hosea explained to them, "not to mention we happen to have more than one real Indian and a Hispanic as well. Look around you my friends, our little multiracial group nearly equals percentage wise an entire grades worth."

"Fine," the girl huffed, "but I don't have to like all the staring."

Harry rolled his eyes at his friends discussion. "Sooner that they get used to us the better I'd rather not be gawked at cause they're getting pretty annoying." He grumbled to his friends.

"Not unless you've got a horse under you, a football under your arm, or a guitar in your hand." Casey told him with a smile. "Then you wouldn't mind performing for them right Jag?"

"Just ignore all of them buddy," John Airwatcher told his friend.

"Easy for you to say Morph, you're not being watched like I am. I mean seriously, even the teachers are watching me as if they can't decide what I am." The boy complained to his friend jerking his thumb over his shoulder at the head table. The group nodded in agreement as they saw the curious looks that their friend was getting from all of the teachers and students around their extremely private friend.

Their conversation was interrupted by a coughing sound from behind them. The group all turned to see that a young man with blond hair and blue eyes looking at them with a stone like face. He was wearing the Green and Silver of the Slytherians. Flanking the thin boy were two thuggish looking boys who looked like they might have at least a bit of troll or gorilla blood in their veins with all the hair and overdeveloped muscles that they both had. A number of the Gryffindors were eyeing the young man and his shadows uncomfortably while trying to appear small. "Did ya need something?" Jenna questioned as they watched the boy.

"I merely thought that I would introduce myself and make myself available to discussions if you were to ever want proper conversation." Draco said looking at Casey and Jenna. "After all the children of some of the best wand and weapon makers in the American wizarding world should have some of the best people to talk to should things become uncomfortable while you are here."

Casey barely contained a growl at the way this boy was making a mockery of his friends as if the two of them were really all that better because they had money and family connections. Colton and Jake were doing their best to hold the boy back from standing up and making a deal out of the way Malfoy was talking down to the rest of them.

Malfoy's pale gray eyes then turned toward Harry who was doing his best to ignore the pureblood. "Ah, of course then there is you Potter." The boy said in a condensing manner as if he had just now noticed the other boy. "It's a pleasure to see that the Potter heir is back in Hogwarts, the Potter and Malfoy heirs have always gone to Hogwarts. As the brother of the Girl-Who-lived I suppose I should welcome you to Hogwarts hallowed halls." The boy said with a sarcastic sneer as he made a show of offering his hand to the black haired wizard.

At the offered hand several of the Americans snorted. "Are you trying to impress us, or is that really the way you act all of the time?" Rachel questioned him.

Malfoy glared at the insult, "Winchester, Potter you need to control the tongues of your companions before they find out what little power your names really mean on this side of the ocean. The Winchester family is merely known by reputation and the Potter family also has very little true power here and most of that power comes from your sister. Her power is not what it used to be either though, so there is little hope of your surviving if you should anger the wrong people while you are in our country. I am merely being courteous to you, something I do not have to be."

"And the wrong people would be you?" Colton questioned, not about to back down from a challenge.

Harry sighed at his friends, "Guys cut it out before cousin Malfoy here decides to start playing power games over something you say, besides it's not worth it. As for their really talking like that yeah they really do, or at least the purebloods do according to Sirius. Technically Malfoy here and I rate about the same though since we're both the heirs to Noble and Ancient houses."

Malfoy smirked at the dark haired boy. "Cousin?" He drawled at the Americans, "I don't ever recall seeing the name Potter on the Malfoy family tapestry and I know for a fact that there is no Evans name on it either. I also think that you overestimate the power that the Potter family has it is well known that the Malfoy's are superior to the Potters."

Harry met Malfoy's amused smirk with a wolfish grin that made the pureblood uneasy as the half-blood began drawling back at him. "That's because you don't have all of the facts cousin. My father is a blood brother to your cousin Sirius Black and until Sirius has a kid I'm considered his heir which means I have the combined power of the Potter and Black family names."

Malfoy swallowed at this while the Black family name had lost much of its respect and power over the past few years it still had a bit of clout with it working alongside of the Potter name and it nearly equaled that of the Malfoy family name and that was without using any influence that Violet might have meaning that the boy in front of him had the potential familial influence to be greater than he was. "I do not understand, the Black name should be either my mother's or mine not belong to a half-blood." The blonde sneered at the boy before him.

"Well it so happens that my father and Sirius Black, the current Lord of the Black family went through a ritual known as a brotherhood ceremony, since the blood of a Black runs in my dad's veins it gives me a legal hold to the head of the House of Black title. The connection is recognized by both the American Senate of Magic, the British Ministry of Magic, and the Goblin Nation, meaning that it can't be challenged unless it can be proved to the Supreme Court, the _**Wizengamot,**_ and the Goblin High Council that there is some kind of foul play involved before or after the ceremony like compulsion charms, controlling potions, or Imperious curse."

Malfoy nodded at this reluctantly since it was obvious that he was not used to accepting information like this from people that he considered inferior to his own position still much of the information had been enlightening. "Well I shall leave you and your ah fellows to your meal then Potter. I'm sure that a school lasting as long as Hogwarts might be enough to overwhelm most of them with all that it is since I doubt that any of them have ever seen things that are much better than Hogwarts." Draco then gave a nod to the members of the Titans that he considered important before wandering down the table to find Violet.

"Well that was just a barrel of fun," Jake snarked to his friends.

"We need to get you a new dictionary if you thought that was fun amigo," Hosea told the werewolf with a small grin.

"Sounds like a plan Wiley." The other boy said with a grin.

"Well, the sooner you guys finish eating the sooner we can start exploring I'm sure that there's all sorts of cool stuff to do around here." Colton told his friends before he grabbed some orange juice and chugged it down. The other members of the group nodded their agreement to this plan and began to eat what they needed so that they could go and explore before any of their teachers caught up with them and had them do other things that they might not want to do.

Dumbledore watched the group of Americans curiously the first meeting with young Mr. Malfoy had not gone quite any of the ways that he had expected it to. Young Harry had neither reacted in the usual distrustful manner or angry individual that he was used to seeing out of people from light families when they first confronted the Malfoy heir. In fact Harry had seemed to tolerate the Slytherian and acted as if the boy was merely a nuisance, he wondered what it was that Harry knew or didn't know about the boy to make him treat him in such an unimpressed manner. Perhaps the boy did not truly understand the type of power that Mr. Malfoy had. The clenched fists that most of the Americans had though did prove that many of these children had tempers ranging from a similarity of Ron Weasley all the way to the more controlled fury like Miss Granger. He would have to watch them, he doubted that they could all keep themselves together for long without making a scene and when they did he would have his watchers around the school report how everything happened and what set them off. Knowing an opponent's pieces was important and these children were the Marauders pieces once he knew how they worked and operated he would be one step closer to controlling the Marauders. For the greater good of the oncoming war he would need as many allies and followers as he could get his hands on. It did sadden him that children would have to be used in the upcoming conflict but he would do what he would need to for the survival of the people of the European Wizarding world. If they hadn't wanted to become involved in this war then they should not have joined up with James Potter's son.

* * *

The Titans finished their meal under everyone's watchful eye and then slipped out of the Great Hall. They were rounding a corner when Rachel was nearly knocked over by a blonde that was rushing down the hallway. The two girls crashed into each other and began falling Rachel was caught by Jake while Colton managed to catch the blonde before she managed to collide with the floor. The girl looked up at her rescuer in surprise. "You caught me," she stated with wonder in her voice as if she was shocked that someone had stopped her from falling.

"Well yeah," the broad shouldered teen admitted confused over why the girl seemed so surprised over his stopping her from getting hurt.

"Thank you," the girl said she then turned to Rachel who was already back on her feet. "I am sorry about running into you; I suppose that the wrackspurts must have blinded me from seeing you."

"Uh, huh and what exactly are wrackspurts?" The southern teen questioned in confusion. "I'm not exactly an expert on magical creatures."

"I'll say," John grumbled having helped the girl with her Care of Magical Creatures homework more times than he cared to remember. The girl casually sidestepped onto his foot. The boy smirked at his friend, "steel toed, dragon hide boots, with impervious charms on them do you really think that you're going to stomp through those?" He questioned her.

"That's all right very few people are familiar with them even fewer people believe that they exist." The girl said before the two could continue in their teasing of each other. Wrackspurts are creatures that enjoy messing with the senses of people. I must have forgotten to protect myself from their influence when I got up this morning." The girl explained with a smile.

"I see, I think." Colton answered slightly confused over the idea of having to protect your senses from some sort of creature. _'Maybe they were native to this part of the world and that was why none of the Titans had heard of them,'_ the boy reasoned to himself.' "Anyways I'm Colton or Rocky depending on who you ask." The boy said offering his hand to the girl.

"Interesting," the girl said as she shook the boy's hand, "it must make it particularly difficult for the nargles to find you if you keep on changing your name, I will have to tell daddy about that particular defense. I am Luna or Looney Lovegood depending on who is talking to me.

"A pleasure," Colton said a little unsure at the way the girl was acting, "just so you know you can bump into me anytime that you would like and I wouldn't care too much." He informed her with a wink and a grin.

Luna blushed slightly at this, "I'll be sure to remember that, I must go and eat now though." She replied and slipped past the Titans who opened up to let her pass them.

"Well she was interesting," Harry noted while watching Colton who was still watching the corner where the girl had wandered to with a bit of a goofy grin on his face.

"Yeah come on though before we run into somebody else or someone else wants to talk to Jag, Grizz, or Scream about who knows what next. Let's go exploring before someone corners us please? Jake pleaded with his friends.

Then lets go before someone else corners us to talk with the 'Great Harry Potter', Colton joked causing the others chuckle while Harry took a playful swipe at his friend.

"Come here Rocky, he growled.

Oh come on you know you can't touch me, the other boy mocked as he dodged from side to side.

"Let's go guys, there are supposed to be dungeons in this place and if there are dungeons there might be a torture room." John tried with his friends.

"And why would we want to go and see those sorts of things Morph?" Rachel asked her friend.

"Well how many times do we get to explore castles like this?" The Native American asked her.

Rachel shook her head in amusement, "You do realize that we're going to have nearly the rest of this school year for us to hunt around for torture chambers and hidden rooms that no one knows about right? Why don't we wait that way when we're all stuck inside because of the bad weather we have something that we can do that might not get us all into too much trouble."

"Loupa, you realize that the chances of something like that happening are nearly nonexistent right?" Hosea questioned, "The chances of all of us managing to stay out of trouble for any length of time would be nearly impossible."

"Besides where would be all of the fun if we didn't cause some havoc?" Sara questioned them, the others nodded in agreement knowing that they attracted way to much trouble and they wouldn't have it any other way.

"Anyways there's not a whole lot else to do," Harry pointed out to his friends. "Remus said no shifting for any of us whether we're wolf or helper unless we're in the forest if we can help it."

"But we shifted earlier when we came back to the castle after we fed the Widowmakers," Sara pointed out.

"Yeah well lets hope that his facing off with professor Evans distracted him enough that he didn't bother to smell how strong our animal scents were." Wiley said hopefully while getting looks of disbelief from the others. "Yeah your right there is no way that we're that lucky." The boy grumbled.

"Sounds like that's all the more reason for us to go exploring now then," Grizz said, "cause who knows when we'll get another chance to go exploring it might be a week or two before he lets us out of his sights again we should make the most out of this opurtunity as we can."

The girls all sighed knowing that they were going to have to go explore if only to get the boys to be quiet for a while or else they would never get any peace. "Fine," Rachel growled out, "but only because you guys would be total pains if we didn't let you have your way and there is no way that we want to listen to you whine the entire time that we're here."

"Just remember that we need to be set for the picnic that Jag has later on." Jenna pointed out to her friend.

"Did ya have to remind me of that?" Harry questioned in annoyance as they began making their way toward the stairs that led down into the dungeons.

* * *

Hermione Granger stepped out from behind the corner cautiously as the group dissapeared into the dungeons, the group was interesting. None of them appeared at first to have the high and mighty attitude that Violet Potter had, in fact their dealings with Luna Lovegood had been rather interesting. Luna was an odd sort she would not deny it and Hermione was a bit ashamed to admit that even she was not above ignoring the girl or talking behind her back perhaps these strange Americans were just what Luna needed. Of course only time would tell whether or not these witches and wizards would continue to treat the young Ravenclaw nicely or if they would abandon her once they realize what kind of person that she was.

Hermione had done some light research on the part of the world that these Americans had come from particularly Texas and was a bit unnerved by what she had read. Texans and Californians were supposed to be a bit crazy whether they were magical or muggle they were all crazy. While the ones from California were just a bit strange the Texans were scary in the fact they were reportedly all too willing to meet a fight and were known to jump into one just for the fun of it. These people along with Harry Potter appeared to be almost the stereotypical idea of Texans. One of these Texans proudest moments and sayings had to do with the death of an entire fort where every member had been killed. She would need to study this group some more before she made a judgment call on these people because her gut told her that this group stuck together more firmly than the Gryffindor quidditch team and were more vicious than a pack of blast ended skrewts. Sighing the girl turned in the direction of the great hall so that she could get some breakfast she really hated all of these power games but she had learned how to play them quiet well in the past few years since she had first started coming to Hogwarts. She wasn't the master that Dumbledore was nor did she have the familial connections and money that paved the way like Malfoy had but she was honest and loyal giving her enough credibility to at least make people think about what she said. She wondered where the headmaster would place these people because she had no doubt that Harry Potter and his friends were really agents of Dumbledore who had come to tip the balance to a way that the headmaster would prefer. She would have to wait and see where they would change things though.


	6. Chapter 6

Amazing I'm still here and I have a new chapter this first half was murder to write. Still own nothing but if I could I would so love to own TX.

* * *

Harry grunted as he changed into a clean shirt, the dungeons had been a lot filthier than any of them had thought they would be. They had been of some interest to them though as they had been able to see the various things in the dungeon. The castle had been created as to be self sufficient in times of need and could actually be run as a small town and community for a little while. That included the ability to hold people should they ever find the need to it seemed. Their wandering around the dungeons had managed to turn up a few rooms that were mainly used as brewing rooms or storage areas for the various things that were kept in the castle, the place had so many hidden things inside of it that it was hard to remember that it was really a school place and not a museum. The group of Americans it seemed was promised several hours of interesting times with the way things were set up in this place. The group had even found what appeared to be a small torture chamber, the fact that the entire room had been painstakingly cleaned and every chain oiled till they glinted in the torch light did make one pause and wonder what it was that they thought of as needed in the school. Why anyone would feel the need to make those sorts of things ready to use should never be trusted.

As interesting as all of that had been though Harry's mind wasn't on the cages, whips, and chains that they had seen, but rather on the upcoming meal that he would now have to share with his mother and sister. This would be the first time that he had truly eaten with the pair of witches in years; he wasn't really all that sure just how he should act to the upcoming lunch. One of his closest friend's Colton would be coming with him, since the others had all told Sara that it wouldn't be very smart for her to go particularly after her little get in the face thing that she had done earlier with his sister. Bringing her along was likely to put the girl on the defensive, and the idea was to get to know them not try and get some sort of satisfaction for any wrongs that the pair of witches had done to him.

The two boys were dressed in basic clothes of western shirts, jeans, boots, with their dusters and cowboy hats they looked like typical Texas boys. While basic, the clothes were nice enough that they shouldn't cause any problems for them. As a final touch they each added a bolo tie around their necks. The two boys made their way back toward the castle where their friends gave them nods and Remus looked his nephew over for a moment before patting him on the back and sending him ahead toward the castle. Remus watched the nervous boy go and shook his head wondering how things were going to go. He had held his tongue on the invitation and everything else that had to do with the meal Sirus or James might have tried easing the tension with jokes but Harry merely needed the silent support of his friends right now not someone trying to make light of the situation that he was about enter. 'Actually James and Sirus would probably insisted on going.' The Texas Ranger mused, as the raven haired boy and his friend joined his mother before he turned away from the meeting.

Lily nodded at her son as the boy and his friend made their way over to them. She couldn't help compare the pair to what a pureblood would wear. While these two boys were dressed in muggle styles she and the two girls were dressed in casual robes that were meant for these kinds of occasions. The boys though were dressed in clothes that were obviously not of wizarding make, perhaps Dumbledore was wrong and Harry was not as interested as the headmaster had theorized about being one with this side of the wizard world. 'It would be a shame if that was true,' the witch thought, 'because with just a little bit of work he could pass as a very handsome wizard.' In that way he was much like his father. Lily was lost in memories for a moment as she remembered James Potter and what he had been like long along before the boy before her came between them she couldn't help but remember the times that they had back then. She managed to shake those childhood memories off before they got in the way of what she was currently doing. Dumbledore had given her a task and she needed to stay focused on that mission not on what things had been like long ago for her.

The witch composed herself as the two boys stopped in front of the three witches and tipped their hats respectively towards them. "Professor," Harry said in greeting as he took in both his mother and sister standing together with a girl whose red head of hair was just as bright as his mothers.

"Glad to see that you could make it Harry." Lily said with her most charming smile. "We can do the introductions after we find a place to sit and eat though." The woman led the group of teens away from the castle and near the green houses. "This place should work, and we have the advantage of having the aroma of the green houses nearby." The woman said with a smile.

"Um right," Harry said while the two girls gave the woman an eye roll as if they were used to the woman trying to make everything seem all nice and pleasant even when it really wasn't. Lily ignored the teens attitude toward her and began waving her wand at the picnic basket. She watched as the basket seemed to belch out a blanket that flew out and stretched itself out before landing on the ground. It was followed by various things that had been packed into the basket which was slowly but surely belching everything inside of it out. The group then each found a spot to sit which ended up with the two wizards facing the three witches.

"Now then, why don't we go around and introduce each other?" Lily suggested to them all. "I'll start, I'm Lily Snape, Harry and Violet's mother."

Rocky looked at his friend and seeing that he was still comparing the woman's face with the pictures that he had decided that he might as well go first. "Names Colton," the boy said to the Hogwarts teacher tipping his hat to the group. The eldest witch smiled unaware of the slight that the boy had given her by not offering his nickname as he did to most people that he was introduced too. "And you are?" The boy questioned the redhead who seemed content to sit there and watch as the group as they stared at each other.

The girl blushed as she realized that she had been noticed. "Weasely, Ginny Weasley," the girl said with a faint smile that had thrown many a boy off balance. The girl then flashed a much fuller and brighter smile at Harry trying to get his attention. Colton waved at the girl along with Harry who as more interested in his family than in the girl that they had brought with them. The redhead looked slightly offset by this but didn't seem overly offended either as she turned her eyes toward Colton.

"Nice to meet you," the boy said, "quiet guy over here is the reason that we're all here." He joked as he jerked his thumb over at Harry.

The attention shifting from his friend to him seemed to finally throw the other boy back into reality. "Sorry, this is just a little odd is all," he muttered, "I mean I grew up knowing that you existed and all, but I never thought I would really meet either of ya unless it was under some sort of legal matter or something similar."

"Really, and what kind of legal matter would do you imagine would have drawn us together?"

"Eh, my dad, Sirus and Remus are all partners in law enforcement, they could very easily find something or someone that is more than a match for them someday. I mean sure things have been set up for if that were to ever happen but I doubt that would happen without me meeting at least you." He said staring Lily in the eyes with bright green eyes that held the wisdom of loss and possible loss in them.

Lily nodded in agreement she had to admit that the boy had a point, had something like that ever happened it was very likely that they would have met in a legal setting if she didn't send a lawyer of some sort to deal with the problem. Of course had James and his wild bunch died she would have probably left him in the States, she sincerely doubted that Severus would have been able to handle the teenage son of his old rival.

"So, you're Harry Potter," Ginny said breaking the moment of musing that the family members were all having as they considered how they would have reacted to having to be thrust together had something like that happened to the Marauders.

"Yeah so my identification says," Harry joked weakly turning to look at the girl before him he then turned to the last member of the group. "Of course that makes you Violet, the Child-Who-Lived, defeater of the lord of the snakes, Voldemort, who was some sicko who thought it was okay to kill everyone that didn't agree with the whole pureblood wizards are the only ones who deserve to live pile of bat guano, or some other craziness right?"

"Guano?" Violet asked curiously trying to understand what her brother was asking wondering why her brother and his friend couldn't speak properly, it was almost as if she was talking to younger versions of Hagrid.

"Oh sorry, I mean um bat poo." Harry said ignoring the amused snort that Colton was giving him. Ginny snickered at this as well while Lily frowned at the casual and insulting way that James child referred to Voldemort. It was one thing to talk about him when there was an ocean between you another entirely when the Dark Wizard could apparate to your neighborhood or down the road and kill whomever he thought needed killing. There was also the fact that James had earned the right to call the dark lord insulting names by surviving against him three times Harry didn't have that luxury.

Violet meanwhile was looking slightly annoyed that her great magical accomplishment was spoken so causally. It also annoyed her that neither of the two boys seemed to fear the name of Voldemort like others did. She herself didn't fear it completely, was wary yes but she did not fear it. Her father and Dumbledore had long since taught her the difference between fearing a name and respecting a name. The way that these boys talked though, it was obvious that to them it was just a name and had no real meaning to it. Didn't these two Americans know the dangers that Voldemort represented for them all? Her managing to block the killing curse was still something of speculation to various magical studies, after all no one had managed to perform the same trick and until they could she thought that her brother should watch his mouth. If it wasn't for the fact that they wanted to earn her brother's trust she would have called him on that little fact. She decided she could at least remind them of why she was a celebrity though without insulting the boy too much though. "Yes, I am Violet Evans-Potter-Snape, the Child-That-Lived."

At the slightly pompous way the girl introduced herself the boys chuckled. They had never been large fans of people with large egos and often used their sharp tongues to deflate them when needed. The Marauders had been under the attack from the Titans and more often than they liked to admit, and had been forced to look their humility straight in the eye or face even more ego bashing than they cared for. "How can you stand to say that mouthful?" Colton questioned as the boys decided whether or not the witch needed to have her ego punctured before she drove them crazy.

The witch let out a superior smirk at the boys. "Do you honestly think that I would willing go with such a long name? No I prefer to go by the name Violet Snape, the rest is all too long to really worry about. The only times I ever go by my full name is when I'm doing something that is official and I have to use all of my titles. Much like our godfather most likely does when he goes to the rare and occasional meeting that is required of him as the Lord Black." He must be proud to work his name as he does.

Harry looked a bit angry at this comment. "The Lordship of the Black name is not one that we use, it is nothing in which to be proud of. The Black family was a family of killers whom thought themselves above the law. My godfather hopes to someday bring honor back into the family but for now the family will remain away from politics and hope that he can live that bad name down."

"Well then Sirus has his work cut out for him." Lily replied before her daughter used the outburst to goad her brother into doing or saying something in anger. It appeared that Sirus had raised his current heir to be just as much of a pureblood family rebel as he had been.

Colton looked at the famous witch for a moment with a grin. "You gotta admit it's a relief that you don't answer to that whole mouthful of a name though, otherwise it would be a real pain to say all of that all the time I would hate to have a name that long and then have to sign my name on stuff it must have been a real pain when you were first learning to sign your name."

Violet rolled her eyes at the humor that her brother's friend was spouting, if you really did judge a person by their friends then her brother was not in a very good company and didn't really want to be judged as he was nothing more than a simpleton as far as she could tell.

"So tell us a bit about yourself then Harry, I'm sure that there's plenty of things about you that you can tell us." Lily tried, wanting to get the conversation back on her son. She would probably regret the question later on if he was anything like James, but she needed to know how to talk to the boy and the best way to do that would be to learn about who he was and what interested him. That meant she had to deal with his bragging about himself as well though.

Lily was in for a surprise though as she looked at her son. Harry actually looked a bit embarrassed as the focus of the conversation was reverted to him. "Um, well I play football, and work on Marauder Ranch a lot with a lot of people from school, I also do a few odd things here and there."

Colton knew his friend wouldn't give a real glimpse of who he was for these people, and it would be up to him to show them who the real Harry was. "He's forgetting the fact that he's also a winner for Cowboy Action Shooting, he's won a few awards from the International Shooting Sport Federation, he's a ranked member of the Mystic Combat Society, he's considered one of the best for his age group in Enchanted object combat, he's not bad when it come to a guitar, he's a great receiver and quarterback, and he's an ace on magical creatures. If it wasn't for my hombre here I would have failed that class or at least be struggling in it."

"A dueler and a shooter?" Lily questioned with interest, while she was impressed with the magical combat placement, the muggle style of long range fighting was hardly something that she thought any self respecting wizard would admit to knowing how to do, much less actually competing in events for it. There had been a few years when wizards had started owning rifles after it was revealed they were part of what had been used to stop the Dark Lord but they had fortunately quickly fallen out of style before anyone had been seriously hurt by the weapons. If you didn't count that it sounded as if the boy here was trying to make her son out to be perfect.

"Easy there buddy you're going to make me sound like Chuck Norris, which I am anything but." Harry told his friend neither boy noticing the confused looks that the witches were giving him over the name. "Besides, you're the boxer/brawler of the group remember?" Harry flashed his friend a grin to show that he wasn't upset with him. "Anyways we both know that you could take me in a fight if it came down to it."

"Only cause you're too nice to your friends, I've seen you beat guys that fought a lot like me." Colton countered to his friend.

"And I've seen you beat guys that fight like me," Harry returned back toward the other boy, as they started a slight argument that they had been having for years.

"Yes, well Violet is an extremely gifted dueler as well perhaps the pair of you should get together and see what you think of each other. Who knows, you might even learn something." The woman said while looking her two children over, she had little which of her children would actually be the better fighter. Violet had fought the Dark Lord, Death Eaters, and various dark and dangerous creatures throughout her time in Hogwarts while her son had been safe in the states."

"Maybe, what's your preferred fighting style anyways?" Harry questioned his sister with interest.

:What do you mean, I use a wand what more would I use?" Violet questioned in confusion.

"Huh, that's alright," Harry said shrugging, "having a wand to use in a fight is always good it also gives you a pretty big variety of spells to use too. Is that your only way of fighting though?"

"What other way is there then?" Violet growled feeling slightly offended that her style of combat was being dismissed. "Would you prefer that I try to use those monstrosities that you like so much that shoot chunks of metal a person?"

"Well there's nothing wrong with a gun actually," Harry said defensively looking slightly annoyed at the attitude that his sister was giving him over his guns wondering about her fighting style. "However for one on one they're not all that good for fights or duels. In fact they're better for when a person is doing a free for all, a running fire fight, or multiple targets. I can also use a wand pretty well if I have to, but I prefer to use objects that have magic in them though. It's a cross of enchanted and Shamanism for me, I actually prefer Indian Enchanted objects when I go into a fight.:

"Enchanted combat fell out of practice around a hundred years ago Harry." Lily informed her son. "Very few people actually bother with it anymore these days, as you said a wand allows a person to have a greater variety of spells."

Harry shrugged at this. "True, but you have to admit it is a fun way to fight, and some of the results are pretty impressive. Besides you know how magic combat styles come and go over the years, people are always trying to bring something back or get rid of it depending on what year it is."

Lily nodded in agreement surprised at the boy's ability to acknowledge history. Perhaps he knew something of history and the way that it repeated itself. Despite this view into some of his interest she still doubted that he would be able to stand up to her daughter. The only advantage the boy would have against her daughter would be his outdated combat style and guns and with a wand her daughter could easily overcome such obstacles. Still it would be interesting to see how effective such a fighting style was Dumbledore enchanted or animated items all the time during duels and Severus used a variety of potions to supplement his dueling skills when he needed them.

Harry eyed the two witches he was related to uneasily, Lily in particular was setting him on edge. The woman was treating this entire meeting as if it was a social gathering of some kind instead of the first time that they were meeting in over ten years. He turned away from his mother who was a bit of a disappointment as she seemed more interested in interrogating him than in allowing him to learn about them other than that his sister was a dueler. He looked his sister over for a minute ignoring their mother and any more questions she might have and talked at his sister. "So, what are your good classes?" HE questioned her.

Violet eyed her brother with interest for the first time, few people were brave or foolhardy enough to cut her mother off and talk when the redheaded woman was in her entertainer mode. Only her dad Amelia Bones, Dumbledore, McGonagall, Mr. Malfoy and Neville's Gram were the only ones who were willing to challenge her authority while she was like this. The girl figured it might be amusing to play along and see how nice her mother was willing to be, besides this was better than trying to kiss up to the muggleborn, bushy haired, know it all, teacher's pet, that was Granger.

Lily ground her teeth but kept a smiled on her face surprised that the boy wasn't like James and Sirus in wanting to brag about his accomplishments to them all. It probably meant that despite the way he talked and postured that he didn't spend a lot of time with his father and godfather, which meant that it was really Remus that had raised the boy before her. That was good though, it meant that boy would be somewhat bearable and probably didn't have very many of James more annoying habits.

"I'm good with Charms, Potions, Arithmancy, Ancient Runes and DADA, of course I'm not too shabby with my other classes as well and am one of the top students here how about you?"

Harry nodded and gave her a wry grin. "Well I'm crap at potions, I'm good at DADA and pretty good with Charms, transfiguration I'm not bad at Shaman and voo doo type magic, and I'm one of the better students when it comes to Magical Beasts. Arithamncy might as well be French as far as I'm concerned and I doubt I would do to well with your Ancient Runes Fox Cloud tells us that they're based on early writing styles from around here."

"So the thinking arts are the ones that you have the most problems with?" Lily questioned the boy latching onto the weakness that he was admitting to. "Perhaps we can help you with those, as a Charms and Potions Mistress I would say that I have a lot of knowledge on some of the more subtle styles of magic and how best to use them." Lily admitted with a proud smile as she figured she may have found a way for either her or her daughter to get close to the boy. "Perhaps we can even figure a way to give you some extra tutoring in those sunjects." She offered the young man helpfully. The boy could trust her and then with that trust perhaps the Marauders would be willing to do what she asked of them, or she could have Dumbledore manipulate the boy into doing what was needed.

Harry looked at the woman suspiciously. "Why," he questioned calmly "why would you be willing to help me?"

Lily recognized the signs that the boy was showing something that had been done or said had triggered his temper and the boy was doing his best to control it. Violet said the worst thing in the redheads mind though which seemed to push the boy even farther into having to hold in his temper. "We're family aren't we? We're bound together, family is supposed to help each other out."

"Is that what you believe about us?" Harry said heatedly, as he tried to control himself. "If we are family then how come you never even bothered to try and get in contact with me? I sent enough owls to the both of you over the years that I would think that I would have gotten at least response."

Violet looked unashamed at having never answered her brother. "The mail wards filter out a lot of stuff you probably just didn't rate very high on the importance level and you're letters got diverted to one of the other places where I store mail. We probably never even noticed them when we were going through the various things that those things change the course of."

"So that's how you consider those that share blood with you." Harry said glaring at his twin, as she dismissed his importance. "I was obviously wrong to hope that you and I could connect if that's how you treat your family." The boy turned to the teacher that he shared blood with. "I think I should leave now perhaps we can talk again after I've cooled down. A pleasure to meet you Miss Weasley." The boy said as he stood up he then tipped his hat at the group before storming off.

"Later," Colton said giving the group a wave before he took off after his friend.

Lily sighed as she watched the two leave. The boy had abandonment issues it seemed, something that could be used if worked correctly. She briefly wondered what the boy had thought of her and her daughter before they had said the wrong things. This would obviously take some time though if she was to get on the boy's good side. It was obvious that in her eagerness to get the Marauders under the control of the headmaster she had rushed things for the boy she would have to figure a different way to try and befriend the boy other than being the friendly and doting mother as that way was obviously no longer an option judging from the show of temper that he had just put on for her.

Harry stormed ahead of his friend angry at himself for exploding like he had. He was also angry at how things had gone in general; the meal had been far from enjoyable as far as he was concerned. His mother and sister hadn't really said anything wrong, they had even been asking all of the right types of questions but it was the fact that they had to ask those questions that he was angry about. They were supposed to be family yet they were really strangers. It also showed that neither of them had ever read any of the letters that he had written to them over the years as he had given brief overviews of his life it appeared that he wasted his time and paper though in writing those letters. The way that Violet had told him he didn't rate as important enough to let through the mail wards had been the last straw though. He didn't know why they suddenly cared, but it would be a cold day in hell before he blindly listened to anything that they had to tell him.

Harry grunted a greeting to Remus who was waiting near the paddock by Hagrid's hut. Harry calmly threw himself over the fence that separated the horses from others. The boy checked the animals out by caring for anything that might be ailing them. The boy unfortunately could find little that needed to be done for these animals, as it seemed that Hagrid was just as good with animals as the Marauders had told him he was. The boy finished and jumped the fence again and headed back toward the tent with Colton and Remus following after him.

Harry entered the tent for a moment and came back out, his wolf familiar trailing behind him as he carried his six string acoustic guitar. The boy then found a spot to sit down and began strumming out tunes that had no real meaning as Cap laid down in front of his master and merely watched as the teen played.

Remus watched him for a few minutes before he found himself a nearby seat and watched as the boy played. "Do you want to talk about it?" The Ranger asked warily not wanting to upset the boy anymore than he already was.

Harry turned away from his guitar and looked at the mighty castle with a glare as if it was the fault of the school that he was feeling the way he currently was. "They're strangers Remus, and I'm afraid that's all that they'll ever be." The boy told the man bitterly. "They don't seem to have any problem with us being strangers to each other either. If that's the way that they want play it then I'll go with my hand."

Remus nodded in understanding, the secret hope that something was stopping Lily from answering all of those letters that Harry had written to her had finally had its last cord broken this day. The Ranger wished he could have shielded the boy from this, and a part of him was wishing that the boy hadn't come here but there was nothing that could be done about it now. They were here, and the damage had been done now Harry would have to come and accept all that had happened and learned. He wished he could comfort the boy, but Harry was a private and proud person this was as close to comforting as he would allow unless he let his guard down or was hurt even more.

"Don't beat yourself up over it too much cub," Remus advised the teen, "remember you already have a family without them. It may not be one from blood and what not, but the Marauders and Titans are just as much a family as anything that you could be born into."

"Yeah I guess so," Harry said not sounding overly convinced by what he was being told.

Remus raked his hand through his hair as he tried to figure out the best way to talk to the boy and make him understand that he would be alright. "Harry, let me tell you something that took me a long time to fully accept even with James and Sirus pounding it into my head all of the time. We care for you for you, not because of some fancy thing or other with who you are. We had a choice long ago on whom we could support and we chose you and we have never thought that we made the wrong choice cub. You are our family, forget about what others may think, say, or do. We're a family just not a traditional one."

Harry nodded in understanding of what the Ranger was saying; he would always have a home with the Marauders no matter what. It was pointless to let him doubt himself because his mother and sister didn't want him around. He would just have to show his mother just what she had lost by turning her back on him the boy thought with a slight smirk. Harry looked up as he saw his friends heading towards them. His friends were like family and he wouldn't give them up for anything. He breathed out deeply as he let a little bit more of his anger out as he prepared to join up with his friends and family.

* * *

Remus sighed as he led the group of teens into the outer edge of the forbidden forest. He had used their old communication mirrors and explained everything to James and Sirus about the little luncheon that Lily had hosted and about the mental state that Harry was currently in. Their responses had been quick and predictable they had been severely tempted to head down to the school and find out just what had happened from the redheaded woman. Remus had just barely managed to convince the pair of Texas Rangers to stay where they were and finish what they were currently doing and not interfere. The pair had reluctantly agreed with his suggestion but made no promises about getting revenge later on for Harry. Before signing off the mirrors they had suggested that Remus take the group out, as it was the best type of therapy that they could come up with. Remus knew that had cost them as they had wanted to meet with the group the first time that they journeyed into the Forbidden Forest but they were still too busy to leave things alone for the moment.

The Texas Ranger inhaled deeply and found himself assaulted by all sorts of familiar scents. He looked off to one side and smiled as he ran his hands across a tree. Embedded deep in it were the marks from Mooney and Padfoot's claws and Prongs antlers, when they were younger they had spent many a full moon sharpening their respective weapons on this tree. It was great to be back in the first forest that he had truly felt comfortable in, but it was no longer the one that he lived in. "Welcome kids to some of the first stomping grounds of the Marauders." The Titans blinked at this for a moment before they finally noticed the marks on the tree that Remus was leaning on. "We figured some of you could use some time to clear your heads and the best way to do that we figured was to head out into the forest."

"Alright," Sara cheered high fiving with some of the other members of the group.

Remus shook his head at the excitable girl. "I want you all to obey these simple rules, because to be honest there are things in here that are a lot bigger and meaner than any one of your forms could ever hope to manage." The group nodded in agreement to obey the rules that the man was going to give them. "Alright, stick to the edge of the forest, stay on the footpath, always travel in a group; or at the very least pairs if you have problems try and get away from whatever is threatening you long enough to send up red sparks and someone will head out to find you as quickly as possible. I would say if you saw sparks to leave it to the adults, however I know you all well enough to know that if you though one of your group was in trouble then the rest of you would be there quicker than I could probably be." Everyone laughed at this, not bothering to deny the accusation. "Very well then, if Loupa and Moonshine would each choose a corner to get rid of their extra clothes we can get going then." Remus told the teen werewolves. "It wouldn't hurt the rest of you to go ahead and change either. Oh and try and keep the noise down a bit, we don't want to draw to much attention to ourselves tonight."

"Why not, it's not like we're doing anything wrong." Jenna questioned the Texas Ranger.

Because not everyone is aware of what it is that is going on here. Remus explained to the young witch. It's not exactly well known outside of the states that we've learned how to control the werewolf ability as well as we have. Remus paused as he considered what he had just said and how he had said it. In the old days he would have called it a curse and believed it without hesitation yet now that he had learned to control the power that was the werewolf it was no longer a curse or infectious disease but was instead a gift that he was extremely happy to have. It seemed that being back here was bringing back a number of other old memories out as well.

The teens all nodded while the werewolves wandered out of sight to hide their clothes and change the others merely shifted to their animangus forms. Hosea transformed into a small canine form and a coyote with a row of sharp teeth began nosing around the new and unfamiliar place they were at Wiley coyote was now in the Forbidden Forest. Sara climbed up into a tree and balanced herself on a branch above the others spread her arms out and changed into a red tailed hawk with wings stretched out, giving a shriek of joy as she gave out her battle cry before she swooped off of the branch and flew above the heads of the others, Redwing had joined the sky. Colton chuckled before he changed into his white tiger form stretching himself out feeling all of his mighty muscles ripple the boxing tiger Rocky was ready and able. Casey took one last look around taking in all of their surroundings before changing and letting out a roar as his giant form shot up above the heads of the others as his grizzly bear form declared its presence to the forest. His sister grinned at her brother before changing into a panther and letting out an answering scream to her brother's roar. Grizz and Screamer were ready and abke to go about their duties tonight. John shook his head as he then transformed, the Native American teen's transformation wasn't as instantaneous as the transformations of his animangus friends. His body instead flowed into its new form as he turned into a wolverine. Morph growled at the much larger animals warningly as sniffed the air. Harry chuckled at his friends before he transformed into another feline only instead of the dark panther color or striped figure of his friends he turned into a smaller form that was a dark tawny brown color as he shifted into a mountain lion. Jag hissed at the group as he came into being.

The group of animals then turned to look as the three werewolves joined them two males and one female the werewolves nodded to their friends for a moment. The animals began nosing around each other checking each of their scents before they then began running along the edges of the forest making sounds of enjoyment as they ran. Tonight they were free from the stress of being watched by the inhabitants of the castle and instead could do as they pleased. The native creatures of the forest heard the familiar sounds of creatures that were not native to the forest giving out their cries as they sounded off their presence in the forbidden forest. Had any one of these animals made its call it would have been answered by a dozen different challenges but the unity that came from these animal cries stopped them from coming the unnatural sound of the three werewolves baying toward the forest also was enough to stop them. The centaur tribe heard the calls and looked to the stars and saw that Mars was coming closer soon to its climax.

* * *

Albus Dumbledore stood in his office his hands clasped behind the small of his back and heard the distant baying and other such noises coming from the forest. He wondered what was out there tonight that would cause those noises, while a part of him felt that he should go and investigate the other part of him decided to leave them for now besides maybe they would soothe Hagrid to sleep before they moved on. He sincerely hoped that the sounds would moved on as he rather doubted that he was really hearing a werewolf despite the number of times that he had heard that particular sound. It was merely his mind playing tricks on him he assured himself, as he turned and watched as a half moon appeared from behind a cloud bank where it had been hiding from his view. Now he could see it though and that sight was all he needed to confirm that his imagination was merely getting away with him. With the way that the world was changing into a darker place he was seeing and hearing things that simply weren't really there. There was no way that there was a pack of werewolves in the forbidden forest on this night, it was simply an impossible thing to happen having assured himself. The headmaster of one of Europe's finest schools turned back toward his desk.

The next day Dumbledore looked over the group of school children as they ate their breakfasts. This was the start of a new week a week that would probably be a prelude to what the rest of the school year would be. He looked down at his schedule with interest Slughorn, Sprout and Filus would be observing this week while Severus would be teaching D.A.D.A, Minerva would be teaching transfiguration, and Sinistra would be teaching astronomy this week. A friendship had come up between Fox Cloud and Sprout as they discussed the various plants that they were familiar with. Dumbledore was glad to see that the pair was on friendly terms as it made things easier to work with when they were all willing to be polite. He looked up at Remus and Lily who appeared to be trying their best to be cordial to each other he didn't know what had happened other than the fact that the picnic lunch with Harry had somehow gone off course and now Remus was doing his best to be polite to his muggle studies teacher who had somehow insulted her son.

The headmaster shook his head away from the politics that erupted from this and focused on the children at the table particularly the Potter children. The pair were doing their best to ignore each other Harry had even gone as far as placing his schoolmates between himself and his sister this also happened to put him dangerously close to Hermione Granger. He didn't know what would happen if the two of them were to become friends, fortunately the pair were currently ignoring each other. He would tell his teachers to place the Potter children close together in the hope that they would begin to get along if the boy continued to be resistant to the offered hands of family and friendship then he would have to see if he couldn't make the boy appear dark to the rest of the masses that were in the school. Having some of the more talkative portraits pass on a few choice words to certain people would soon have the whole castle believing that young Harry was considered as a danger. He sincerely hoped that he wouldn't have to resort to such a tactic but if it helped in the upcoming war then he would do what was required for the greater good for all.

He was just glad that the Marauders had not done anything foolish requiring him to do damage control. It seemed that despite all of their talk they were not really going to be doing much after all since they had yet to do anything. The fact that the Marauders were just making sure that all of their information was iron clad didn't seem to occur to him since he was used to the rash decisions of others as opposed to people ensuring they were correct. He finished his meal and then watched as everyone departed for their own classes wondering how each of the Americans would do. He hoped that they didn't teach them anything that they didn't really need to know, he would truly hate it if their ideas were to start the Hogwarts student into thinking that it was alright to do certain things. He didn't mind thinking for oneself but he also didn't want people to abuse the ability and cause problems either, hopefully he wouldn't have to worry about that sort of thing. In this dark time the awakening of new ideas could be deadly in times such as these and he had no wish to find out that his students were dead.

The headmaster turned and watched as the group of Americans checked their book bags before heading off for the classes that they now had. The sixth year Americans would be with the Gryffindor sixth years hopefully that would increase the chances of the Potter siblings in making up with their differences surely the boy should know that what Lily had done was actually all for the best for all concerned.

* * *

Shorter than the other chapters I know but on the plus side I do have nearly ten pages for the next one already done.


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